''Oh, come on!'' Cassie heard a drunken slur as the front doors to the police station opened behind her, "It's not like I hit anyone!" The intoxicated woman sounded familiar to her, but she was too busy writing up her last report to bother turning around.
"Castiel!" Sheriff Mills said in a stern voice. When she looked up the woman looked annoyed as if she had been trying to get Cassie's attention for a while. She looked worn out and exhausted. Her clothes were wrinkled as if she had been wrestling with someone and the bags under her eyes looked more defined than they had the day before.
"Yes, ma'am?" Cassie asked wry. The sheriff hardly ever talked to her, not that many people did. Cassie was usually quiet and kept to herself, rarely talking with the other officers unless she needed to for a case. It wasn't that Cassie liked being alone, but her people skills were a little rusty and she just didn't know how to make conversations flow like other people could so easily.
"I got a favor to ask of you," Sheriff Mills started, but stopped and looked at Cassie as if she was rethinking if Cassie was the right person to ask. Cassie stared at her, waiting for her to continue, which made the sheriff a little uncomfortable. She knew Cassie was a good person, never caused any trouble, was diligent with her work, but God did the kid have an intimidating stare, especially with those piercing blue eyes. They kind of made Sheriff Mills a little nervous to talk to her. She was her superior, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't at least a little scared of the girl. The girl reminded her of a soldier, she was merciless in her work, and always wore a cold blank expression.
She finally continued, "Well, I have to get home to my son, he's been sick this past week, so I have to take off early. And I was wondering if you'd keep an eye on someone for me?"
Cassie looked at her confused and tilted her head, "An eye on someone?"
"Yeah, she just got brought in on a DWI charge and will be here for the night. Her uncle is a real good friend of mine, so I try to watch out for her. She's been in here a few times and some of the other officers are pretty harsh on her cuz of that, abusing their powers. Horrible to say, but there's always going to be those kind of people. But I just can't be here tonight to keep those officers in line so they won't do something stupid and I was hoping you could step in for me?"
"Of course, Sheriff Mills," Cassie tried to smile, but she it didn't look as genuine as she tried to make it.
Sheriff Mills stared at her for a minute, gagging if that was sarcasm or not. It was always hard to tell with Cassie. But Cassie went back to writing her report and didn't move. With no further comment from the girl, Sheriff Mills decided Cassie wasn't mocking her and thanked her before leaving the station.
Cassie felt kind of happy that Sheriff Mills had asked a favor of her. People had always told Cassie that she came off as untrusting as it was hard for her to express her emotions so Sheriff Mills trusting her with something made her feel happy. And the favor hadn't been a big one, just to make sure none of the officers abused anyone, which she would have done if Sheriff Mills hadn't even asked her. It only meant that instead of going home after her report was finished like planned, she would have to stay the night. That didn't bother her, though. There wasn't anyone waiting for her at home, anyway, besides her pet guinea pig.
After she turned in her report, Cassie didn't really know what to do with herself. Since she took Sheriff Mills's post at the front desk, it was really boring, just sitting there keeping watch. She decided to look through the files of the people recently brought in so she'd know who she was even supposed to be keeping an eye out for. There was a man brought in for vandalism. Another for auto theft. A woman for public indecency. Then finally one for a DWI, Cassie pulled out the file and froze staring at the picture. She then dropped the folder and suddenly ran out from behind the desk towards the jail cells.
She heard Gabriel, her brother and fellow officer, asking her what the hell she was doing back there, as he was keeping guard. But she ignored him, and just searched frantically for those candy apple green eyes through the iron bars.
"Cas?" she heard from behind her and now immediately recognized the voice. She whirled around and saw her in the opposing jail cell.
Deanna looked horrible. Cassie hadn't seen her in a month and it made her worry as to what she had been doing besides drinking her body weight in alcohol. Her blonde hair was ratted and her makeup was smeared under her eyes. Her face was swollen in like she hadn't had a proper meal in days. And Cassie could smell the whiskey on her breath from six feet away. Cassie walked over to her and started to regret coming back here. She hadn't thought of what she would do once she found Deanna, just that she wanted to see her.
"It is you!" Deanna exclaimed loudly grabbing hold of the bars as Cassie stopped in front of her cell. "Caaaass, I've missed you!" Deanna's words were still as slurred as they had been when she came in. And by her posture and the grin on her face, Cassie could tell she was still pretty drunk.
Cassie narrowed her eyes at her, now completely regretting to come find Deanna, and crossed her arms. Deanna pouted at that, "Oh, Cas, don't be like that! I'm sorry I haven't called you. It was a dickmove okay?"
Cassie turned her head away from her, her jaw locked in anger. She could feel Gabriel's presence a few feet away from her, but he seemed too amused by the scene to nosely intervene like he normally would.
"It's just...," Deanna's voice dropped and there was a change in her tone. Cassie looked back at her and met her eyes. There was something in Deanna's eyes that was dark and sad that reminded Cassie of a scared little girl. But they soon glossed over with a mask that Deanna usually reserved for people outside of her family. Her hands dropped from the bars and she started to turn away, "Just fucking forget it. You don't want to hear my bullshit, anyway.'' She walked away from the bars and sat on the floor, hugging her knees and burrying her face in them. Cassie watched her and it made her chest tighten. Deanna didn't move or look back up at Cassie, even though, Cassie was sure she had stayed there staring at her for a good long two minutes. She felt Gabriel's hand on her shoulder and let him lead her away from the cell block.
Gabriel looked serious and was about to open his mouth to say something when Cassie interrupted him, "How much is her bail?"
Gabriel looked at her confused, "Uh, well, it's like it usually is for first time offenders. Since, she hadn't caused a wreck or anything, was just swerving. Jody fined her only $2000."
"Alright," Cassie sighed pulling out her wallet from her back pocket and started writing out a check.
Gabriel's eyes widened, "Are you paying her bail for her?"
Cassie looked up at him, annoyed at his dramatics, "Yes, Gabriel. Then, I'm taking her home. Sheriff Mills really only asked me to look out for her and you only have like three jailers to look after. You don't really need me around, do you?"
Gabriel laughed incredulous, "Look, I don't know how you know this chick, but-"
"Because it's none of your business, Gabriel," Cassie handed her brother the check and held out her hand for the cell block keys.
He sighed heavily but dug out his keys and dropped them in her palm. Cassie strolled back over to Deanna's cell and in the voice she heard all the time, "Winchester, you're free to go."
Deanna looked up at the door sliding loudly, "What?"
Cassie just motioned with her hands for her to follow her, "Come on. I'm taking you home."
Deanna stood up, still confused, but followed her. Cassie slid the door back and tossed the keys to Gabriel, "Have a safe night, brother." He smiled back at her, but eyed Deanna behind her suspiciously.
Deanna caught him and smirked, "What are you looking at, officer?"
"Oh, nothing. Just wondering who the hell you are to make Cassie want to leave work early. I can never even get her to go out for drinks afterwords. You must be something special. I would tell you to treat her right, but it seems like that's late, so just treat her better. Or I'll get my sister, Anna, to kick your ass," Gabriel replied and turned away from them to walk back to his post.
Cassie glared at her overprotective brother's retreating back, as she noticed Deanna's reaction. She looked down at her shoes guilty and her smirk from before and hotly attitude was gone. Without looking up, she said sounding broken, "Cas, ya know, it's okay. I can find my own way home."
Cassie frowned at her, "No, I'm taking you home to make sure you get there safely. Now, come on. I still need to get my coat." Cassie walked towards her desk and prayed Deanna had listened and followed her instead of bolting for the doors. She grabbed her keys from her top drawer and threw her tan trench coat on. When she turned back towards the front of the police station she was relieved to see Deanna standing there waiting for her.
Deanna let out a chuckle her eyes running up and down Cassie's body, "You and that damn trench coat. I never see you without it. Well, you wouldn't really be Cas without it, I guess."
Cassie felt a blush start on her neck at Deanna's comment and pushed through the doors to the outside to hide her embarrassment. They walked to her car in silence and Cassie couldn't help but feel conscious of Deanna's arm brushing against hers in the darkened parking lot.
The drive to Deanna's wasn't much less awkward. Neither of them spoke for a while until Deanna couldn't stand the silence anymore even in her drunken state.
"Cas, I'm sorry I never called you back."
Cassie's hands tightened around the steering wheel, but she didn't respond. Deanna sighed at the responsiveness. They had been dating for almost six months and everything was great until Deanna had practically fallen off the face of the earth a month ago. She never answered any of Cassie's calls or texts and no one answered the door when Cassie went to check her apartment. Deanna's little brother, Sam, whom she had become quite good friends, with couldn't seem to get a hold of her either. But that wasn't saying much, since he was off in California at Stanford and they were in Lawrence, Kansas.
"Some stuff happened and I just," Cassie glanced at her then and Deanna was just staring out the window into the night trying to gather the words, "I didn't talk to anyone, it wasn't just you. I was in a real bad place and I didn't want to take out my problems on you. You deserve so much better.''
Cassie's grip on the steering wheel loosened. Deanna certainly didn't sound like the drunk woman from earlier. Cassie could hear the emotion in her voice that she was trying to hide and it made her have that feeling in her chest again. She barely managed to get out, "What?" before she felt Deanna's eyes back on her. She tried to speak more audible, "What happened, Deanna? What's wrong?"
Deanna stared at her for a minute, contemplating whether she wanted to continue the conversation or not. Then, Cassie met her eyes and all she saw was warmth in them and Deanna felt highly undeserving of such affection.
"Ellen and Jo," she said simply and took a deep breath before she continued, "The Roadhouse, it burned down. They...they didn't make it."
Cassie felt the breath in her throat catch at Deanna's words. She hadn't heard about the Roadhouse burning down. Though, she had never spent much time with Ellen and Jo outside of Deanna's introductions, she had liked them. Deanna had told her that when her abusive father, John, had his really bad nights when her and Sam were kids, Deanna would drive them off to Ellen's for refuge. She had grew up with Ellen's daughter, Jo, and they were like best friends. The Harvelles were family to her and Sam. It was no wonder Deanna was so torn up about their deaths.
"Deanna," Cassie started but didn't really know what she could possibly say, "I'm so sorry. I know how much they meant to you."
"Yeah, it sucks, but I don't want no crying on each others shoulder, eating ice cream, watching Disney movies moment okay?"
Cassie frowned at her. For as long as she had known Deanna, the woman had a rule about "No chick flick moments" and she never wanted to talk about her feelings. Cassie had once told her that it was unhealthy to keep that all bottled up, but Deanna had just made a joke about it and changed the topic.
"Well, if you had wanted that," Cassie spoke hypothetically, but Deanna still made a face at her, "If you had, then I would have been there for you. If you wanted to talk about it, if you didn't. I don't understand how you would've taken your problems out on me."
Deanna was quiet for a moment, "Cas, you just don't know how messed up I really am. I'm an alcoholic high school dropout with six bucks to her name. I'm a grunt mechanic. And I fail every godforsaken thing I care about and I just didn't want to fail you too okay?''
"Having some bullshit to shift through and problems in life isn't failing me, Deanna. You don't have to be perfect."
"Yeah? What about when I start taking my anger out on you?"
Cassie only smiled at her, "Deanna, you wouldn't hurt me."
Deanna wanted to argue with her. Wanted to tell her how much of a horrible person she was and that she should run as far fucking away from her as she could. She didn't deserve her. Deanna wasn't much of a believer, but she felt like God had given her this angel to watch over her and for some reason she wasn't finding it hard to accept the gift. Cassie was the most amazing person she had ever met. She was so much more than all those hookups and one night stands she had in the past. She made Deanna want to try the whole relationship thing and it scared the shit out of her. Cassie was right, Deanna could never hurt her, at least not physically. But she was terrified she was going to screw this up and break her heart.
The car pulled to a stop and Deanna looked up. They were parked in her driveway and Cassie cut the engine off. Deanna turned to her and Cassie was smiling at her like she hung the fucking stars and moon in the sky. Deanna wondered whatever she did to get a look like that.
"Thanks for the ride, Cas. I'll, uh, call you okay?" Deanna opened the car door and hopped out and instantly regretted her quick movement. She stumbled and barely caught her self. Cassie being around had made her sober up, but her body was still filled with all of the alcohol she drank. Deanna stood there for a moment gripping the side view mirror for balance as she heard a car door slam. Cassie wrapped her arm around Deanna and supported her as she walked her to the apartment. She reached into Deanna's jacket pocket and pulled out her keys and opened Deanna's door.
All the liquor Deanna had drank was apparently finally catching up with her. Her body was slack in Cassie's arms and she was drowsy. Cassie layed her on her bed and Deanna seemed to immediately fall asleep. Cassie removed her shoes and her leather jacket and then proceeded to strip her down to her undershirt and boy shorts. Cassie pulled the covers over her and tucked her in. She placed an empty trash can on the side of Deanna's bed in case she got sick and pain relievers and a glass of water on her bedside table.
She turned to go but looked back at Deanna and leaned down. She moved the hair from her face and kissed her on her forehead. She was covered in sweat and still smelled heavily of whiskey, but Cassie didn't really care. Deanna was Deanna. No matter how gross she may get, Cassie was still in love with her.
She whispered goodnight to Deanna as to not stir her awake and turned to leave, but Deanna tugged her back with her hand firmly gripping Cassie's wrist. Cassie startled looked down at her. She had thought she was asleep.
She barely heard the almost inaudible plea, "Stay,'' before Deanna's hand went limp and she drifted back asleep. Cassie sighed and took off her holster and belt and laying them on the table. In only her white t shirt, Cassie crawled into bed next to Deanna. Cassie wasn't in the bed for a minute before Deanna rolled over and cradled herself into Cassie's arms.
As Cassie held her and ran her thumb across Deanna's arms soothingly, she hummed Hey Jude because she knew it's what Deanna's mother sang to her when she was little before she died. It still calmed her after all these years and she felt Deanna relax more against her and heard her breathing steady as she finally fell to sleep. But not before Cassie heard her whisper a soft, "I love you," and she couldn't help but think she should do Sheriff Mills favors more often.