I don't want anyone accusing me of mary-sue-ness, but I have given Nest a few traits belonging to me if only to give her character a little bit more authenticity. I'm not going to say which traits but she's definitely not perfect. God, I have FF ADHD.
It started out odd.
Dean wasn't used to thinking Cas could keep secrets. The guy could barely lie about anything; he was utterly incapable.
But here they were, two hours after Dean prayed for him and all the angel was saying is he was 'out'.
"You mean with the war?"
Castiel pursed his lips, a millisecond expression Dean almost missed. "No."
He looked at his friend with a serious case of 'what the fuck'. "Are you kidding me? Where the hell else would you be? I've been calling you for like two hours. We need your help on this case, man."
"I apologize, Dean. I got here as fast as I could."
He certainly looked sincere and Dean was helplessly lost when it came to people being so upfront so he just grunted and turned back to his computer and started to debrief him, not minding the way he leaned over his shoulder to peer at the screen.
The second time it happened, they were infiltrating a nest of vamps in Tennessee and had gotten caught. Dean was out like a light, being fed on and Sam screamed himself hoarse for the angel who showed up twenty minutes later looking rumpled and confused but immediately took note of the situation and started to glow. Knowing the drill, Sam closed his eyes and heard the creatures scream as their eyes melted out of their sockets. "What took you so long?" the younger prodded gently as Cas tended to Dean's wounds.
"I was otherwise occupied." Was the curt response he received.
Dean groaned and his eyes fluttered open. "You guys look funny…."
"The vamps sucked a lot of blood, Dean. You'll be lightheaded for a while." Sam sighed as he cut him out of the chair he had been strapped to.
"'m fine, Sammy." Belligerent as always, he stood and immediately collapsed into Castiel's arms, who looked at him disapprovingly. "You got a sucky sense of timin', Cas," he slurred. "Hey what color are your wings?"
Before Castiel could even contemplate an answer, his charge was passed out. "Thanks, Cas."
Even the angel could hear the slight disapproval in Sam's tone and was suddenly frustrated by it. But he wouldn't say anything. He never does. So he just fixed him with a glare and disappeared in a flutter of wings and the flicker of warehouse lights.
It happened again and again. Sometimes he wouldn't come at all, as if he could sense the severity of their situations and chose to ignore most. Over the course of two months they called him less and less and grew more and more frustrated.
Right now, they were in the middle of hunting a wendigo. They walked through the woods quietly and silently brooding on how they would already know where the lair is if Cas were with them, but he had ignored them once again.
They stopped for a break at around one or two for a small lunch of candy (Dean), power bars (Sam), and water when they heard a voice.
They exchanged looks, coming to a silent agreement. Sam grabbed a flare gun and Dean grabbed his pistol as the voice grew closer and louder.
"Cas, sweetie, sometimes half the fun is looking! It's so beautiful out. Besides, I've already got a good idea of where it is. Then you can help me kill it, okay? I'm still a bit new to this upgraded crap."
"You will do fine, Nest."
The deep bedroom voice that answered threw the Winchesters off guard.
"Castiel?" Sam called out in confusion.
The sound of walking ceased.
"Shit."
They heard them resume walking before they stumbled out of the foliage.
The girl was young, possible twenty. Her hair was maraschino cherry-red, held up by a thick black hair tie, and her skin was lightly tanned which only served to bring out her eyes, which looked amber in the sunlight accented by black liquid eyeliner. Hiking boots, shorts, and a Van Halen tee tucked in made her nothing remarkable. But she carried a flamethrower and had a police-issue gun holster.
She shuffled nervously and Castiel, emerging behind her, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder for a few moments before squaring up Sam and Dean.
"Uh…Winchesters, right?"
The brothers exchanged absurd glances that conveyed their utter loss at this situation.
"Who the hell are you and why are you with Castiel?" Dean grunted, gun still trained on her. She twitched uncomfortably and he felt a streak of smug victory fly through him at her obvious nervousness.
"I'm Nest. A hunter. Kind of. Put the gun down, please. Do I seriously look like I could take you and that moose down?"
She let go an audible sigh of relief when he did as she asked.
"Cas, what the hell is going on here? Is she why you've been ignoring us?"
At this, Nest's eyes shot towards the angel and her lips pursed angrily. His jaw tightened and he refused to look at her as he nodded.
His response was a fist in the face. His head barely moved and he heard Dean try to hold back expletives as he nursed his now sore hand. You would think he would have learned by now.
"Sam almost got gutted by a demon in Chicago! What the hell was so important?"
"I do not come at your every whim, Dean. You are not the center of the universe and certainly not the center of mine."
Dean gaped as if he had just gotten the wind knocked out of him.
"O-okay, but why all the no-shows?" Sam ventured uneasily.
"You simply did not need me. You have been hunting far before I came into your lives and will be fine without me."
"Well, yeah, but a text or something saying you're too busy would have been nice."
"A…what?"
Nest sighed. "Cas…we talked about this. The electronic phone letters. Texting."
"Nevermind that," Dean yelled, suddenly recovered. "What the hell are you doing with Cas, little girl?"
She bristled at the term and stomped her foot angrily into the dirt. "I'll have you know I'm nineteen, thank you very little. And Castiel is my friend you needy jackass, which is more than I can say for you."
"W-what? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "When was the last time you asked him how the war was going? What you could do to help? Prayed for him just to have a chat?"
The boys looked surprised, as if those thoughts had never occurred to him.
She nodded and grabbed Castiel's hand. "C'mon, Cas. They've obviously got the wendigo handled. Let's go get some White Castle."
They were gone, running through the woods.
It wasn't until around sunset that the wendigo was slain and the boys headed to a motel and checked in. While their fraudulent card was being processed, Sam had a thought.
"Did a young girl with super red hair and a man with blue eyes check in?"
The clerk eyed them suspiciously. "Yeah, they got a room. Why?"
"She's our cousin," lied Sam earnestly with an open and innocent expression. "My cell died and I forgot which room they got."
"112. You'll be 117."
They got their key and settled into their room, silent for a bit and heavy with this odd knowledge that Castiel had another human priority.
Sick of the tension, Dean stood up from the bed and headed out the door. Sam, who had been on his computer, closed his laptop and headed after his brother to see this chick who was so damn important.
They stood in front of the door for a few second before Dean raised a fist and was about to pound on it when Nest opened it looking like she had swallowed a lemon. "Was wondering when you would work up to courage to knock."
With that she turned and walked across the cheap carpet and sat down in a chair on the other side of the room, which oddly had two beds and on the closest one to her sat Castiel watching TV.
"Dean. Sam. I am assuming you wish for answers."
"No shit, Cas." Dean snorted and sat on the bed opposite his friend leaving Sammy to close the door behind them and take his place hesitantly in the chair opposite Nest. "Who the hell is she?"
He jerked his thumb at the girl in the corner and she glared, sipping her coke and biting her tongue.
"She is a young hunter, Dean."
"Yeah I got that, thanks."
"What he's trying to get at is why she is so important that you've been ignoring us." Sam spoke up when it was obvious Dean wasn't going to elaborate for the socially stunted celestial being.
Castiel sat up straight with perfect posture and turned to make eye contact with Dean. "She was originally to be Seraphiel's vessel. However, Seraphiel is unwilling to become involved at the moment and wishes to reside in heaven in a position of neutrality. I was to seek her out and give her protection."
"Thought you weren't up with Heaven anymore, Cas."
"I am not, Dean. Seraphiel is the commander of all Seraphim and ruler of Tuesday. He is beautiful and kind and teaches all the angels songs to sing God's glory. His assistance in the war would also be an asset if he so wishes to join."
They quirked eyebrows in her direction at the singing bit. "Don't look at me, I can't sing worth shit. Can only carry a note."
Castiel nodded. "You have damaged vessels in your throat and damaged sinus cavities from seizures as a baby. You would sing fine if not for these problems."
She shrugged and motioned for him to continue.
"I found myself befriending her."
And that was that. The two men stared at him for a few silent minutes before Sam spoke up. "That's it? You befriended her? How?"
"Funny story," Laughed Nest. "It was because of you guys. You behavior confuses him and I can help explain the whys that would exhaust you to answer."
"And how would you know jack shit about why we do what we do, princess?"
She shrugged and Cas answered for her which was getting annoying for Dean. They were so at ease with each other. "She is a low level empath. She has the unique ability to place herself in someone's position and understand all motives and feel on a very small level what they feel. It is mainly sympathy and an open mind to many perspectives."
She rolled her eyes as if annoyed but something told them she was slightly pleased to be called an empath. "He makes it sound so fantastic. I'm just good with people and problems."
"That's still not explaining everything."
"No," she agreed. "It's not. I am a Hunter but I've never really ventured beyond spirits and other low level beings. Cas here has been an insurance card in my training and a great friend along the way."
"Why the secrets, though?" Sam pressed.
"Well, Dean for starters. Castiel told me how he can be and I told him not to say anything. He would have thrown a fit at having to share the ace in the hole."
"I am uncomfortable with being referred to as little more than an asset in battle, Nest."
"Sorry. It's how he thinks though."
The angel nodded his posture just a bit more limp than it had been previously.
"That's not true. Cas is family."
She beamed at the admission as if it was what she was hoping for and a spark lit in the angel's eyes, the corners of his mouth twitching.
"So, now that you know about me what are you gonna do?"
They stared at her. "Well, I don't need to hide from you anymore and I'm not going to share Castiel. So you tell me what our next course of action is from here because you obviously have a problem with him hanging around me."
The unspoken solution filled the room like an elephant and they both scoffed.
"What? I'm not completely hopeless."
"You need angelic assistance to hunt a wendigo," Pointed out Sam.
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I don't have a partner. From what I hear, you would both be dead by now if you hunted alone."
"From what you hear?" Dean stiffened and glared at Cas who gave him a level gaze in response.
"The Carver Edlund books. Almost every hunter worth talking to has read them by now. Word spreads fast after Sam and Dean Winchester crash a Supernatural convention where there happens to be ghosts."
Internally the brothers swore.
The silence returned with force and Nest cleared her throat. "Well, I'm hungry. Dinner?"
They all shrugged their indifference and headed outside. "There's a diner up the road. We'll meet you there."
Dean whistled as he saw her get into her car; a '69 Chevy Fastback (blue) and then frowned when he realized she had said 'we' and Cas was in her passenger seat. He glared and got in, bringing his baby to life and peeling out of the parking lot.
Nest didn't follow right away. She turned to the angel in the front seat and smiled sadly. "You alright, buddy?"
His intense eyes met hers and she saw the barely concealed anger and the obvious discomfort he felt with Dean's behavior backed up by confusion as to why he was behaving like so.
She reached over and squeezed his hand. "He'll come around. He sees me as a threat and he'll get over it soon enough."
His brow wrinkled. "You are not adequate enough of a hunter to be a threat to Dean. I do not understand why he would view you as such."
She laughed, tickled by his cluelessness. "He doesn't even know that he views me as one. As to why…well, I don't really have a relatable example for you except a child with a toy or friend that gets taken away. They throw tantrums, and I guess this is Dean's."
He nodded and seemed to sink into himself to contemplate. "Now, burgers!"
And she sped the entire way to make up for lost time.
She slid into the booth across from the brothers and Castiel slid in next to her. A waitress spotted the full table and came over to take their orders.
"Caesar salad." Nest shuddered at Sam's choice. Vegetables are her least favorite, even if a Caesar salad isn't all too bad.
It progressed to Dean ordering a bacon cheeseburger and Nest ordering a corndog and a strawberry milkshake for herself and a cheeseburger for Castiel, who had remained silent the entire time.
"So," started Sam. "Tell us a little about yourself."
Dean rolled his eyes but leaned in to hear.
She cleared her throat and fiddled with a stray thread on Castiel's sleeve.
"Well, I'm vessel to the right hand of Metatron and I have a mom and a dad and a younger sister. Used to be two but a vampire got to her," She was suddenly blinking a lot and focusing intensely on that stray thread. "My parents think I'm away at college and that she was just murdered. But it was your father that came to save us."
The boys exchanged surprised glances.
"Karina died on the way to the hospital; extreme blood loss. She was only ten."
They shifted and Sam grimaced. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Yeah, well. Shit happening right? Not your fault."
They nodded. "So how did you get into hunting? Your parents?"
"God, no," She shook her head. "My dad's a CEO for some pharm company and my mom's been on drugs since Karina. Helps to be the wife of someone who owns a company like that. Anyways, I've been on the road ever since. Taking online classes at some college somewhere. 6 or so credits a semester and they wire me money. No idea I'm not actually at the college and my roommate couldn't be happier to have the place to herself in the dorms with it still getting paid for."
"Ah. That's handy. So no credit card scams for you? Nice. Nest is kind of a weird name don't you think?" Dean inquired as their food arrived. They thanked the waitress and dug in.
Silence descended until Dean repeated the question. Castiel snorted, surprising the brothers.
Nest smiled. "I was named after a character called 'Nest Freeman' in a book called Running With the Demon."
Sam snorted into his milkshake and Dean let out a laugh. "What?"
"Yeah. In the book, she's a magic user who can see these things she calls 'feeders' who devour people. They're caused by negative human thought and it's her job at the age of fourteen to protect the nearby park. A demon starts going after her and she meets a Knight of the Word but he isn't with her when the demon meets her. The demon tells her terrible things. He tells her that her grandmother used to run with him and play with him and that he seduced her mother, who bore him Nest. He reveals that Wraith, a wolf like ethereal creature, who had been following her around since birth protecting her, was a gift from him but when he tried to touch her Wraith tore him apart. Turns out her grandmother had spelled Wraith into protecting Nest against the demon as well. It was a good book. Good trilogy. She eventually becomes pregnant with a Gypsy Morph that could make or break the Apocalyse it grows up into."
"So you see the source of my amusement with her namesake," Castiel grunted, finishing off his burger. "A girl named after a half demon becoming a hunter and an empath."
"And friends with an angel and vessel to one of the most powerful angels." She laughed, laying her head on Castiel's shoulder for a few moments.
Dean shifted uncomfortably. "I…uh…I thought angels didn't do the whole touchy-feely thing."
"Just because we do not make physical contact does not mean we don't ever. Nest happens to be a very physically affectionate human, I believe as a result of being the oldest daughter raised almost single-handedly by her father and with a mother as gentle as hers. Her sisters did not seem to share her cravings for physical contact."
Nest blushed and started chomping away at her corndog, nose crinkling when she realized it was just microwaved here.
"She is also a fan of the Supernatural books and was quite elated to find they were true."
Nest yelped and punched the angel in the arm, getting a blank stare in response. "Cassie! No! They weren't supposed to know that!"
"I do not understand. You never informed me of this."
"I figured it was common sense!"
Dean laughed, a little disturbed. "He and common sense don't work well together."
"Apparently!" She huffed and crossed her arms, looking out the window.
Castiel stared at her, startled, and looked at Dean with a pleading look. Dean shrugged and stole some of his fries.
"So," sniggered Sam. "Are you a Sam girl or a Dean girl? Or worse…slash?"
Her face turned red like a tomato. "Not in the way that you think," she mumbled. "You don't wanna know. Uh….yeah. New topic. Let's go new topic."
"Mozart wrote a canon entitled Leck Mich Im Arse, which is German for 'Kiss my Ass'."
They looked at Sam in surprise. "Well, I might actually begin to like Mozart. Sounds like my kinda guy." Dean sniggered. Everyone rolled their eyes at him.