The time he spent in the elevator was Castiels favorite time of day. The music was soft and the 10x6 room was clean. Castiel takes the elevator at work everyday from the garage to the 6th floor and back down to the garage.
Today, as Cas patiently waits for the elevator to clear out he looks to his left and spots an odd looking woman. Well, she was a beautiful woman, but what was odd about her, cas thought, was the way she held herself, she looked as though she was in pain. Cas glances straight ahead as the familiar 'ding' is heard to signal closing doors. He makes a quick decision and hastily walks toward the grimacing woman.
"Are you okay?" Cas gains the attention of the woman who looks up at him from a hunched position.
She clears her throat and wipes her eyes, effectively smearing her eyeliner, before she answers
"Yeah. Yes. I-um I'm okay."
Castiel is about to voice his concerns but the woman answers quickly, sounding exasperated
"No. No, actually, I'm not okay. I'm sorry. It's just- my damn heel broke and this morning my car wouldn't start and I was late for this job interview im-" She takes a deep breath
"I'm sorry. You probably have somewhere to be." She waves her shoe around not pointing at anything in particular.
"No, um actually I work here, I'm off now, on break I mean" Cas is slipping over his vocabulary as he helps the woman to the nearest lobby bench.
"I'm the I.T guy" he continues, showing her his I.D badge. "you're here for the bookkeeping job on 20th floor?"
The woman sniffles "Yeah. I am. Well I was. I have a feeling it was a disaster."
" You should keep your hopes up. I mean, they hired me" Cas smiles and the woman laughs.
"I'm Joanna. Joanna Harvelle" She extends her hand which Cas takes
"I'm Castiel Novak." Cas looks at his wristwatch then back up "Did you want to get some coffee right now? I've got an hour"
"I'd like that, Castiel." Joanna smiles then removes her black heels to place them in her bag and slip on some flats.
"Great." She and Cas stand from the bench and grab their bags and walk to the elevator to get out of the building.
"So how long have you worked for SunFocs?"
"going on 6 years." Castiel sips his coffee and enjoys the smell of fresh baked muffins and roasted coffee beans
"6 years, huh. wow. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?" Joanna leans back in her chair
"I'm 39. This is the first serious job I've had in-wow-about 10 years. Before this I worked in a library."
Jo raises a freshly waxed eyebrow "Library, huh. You like to read?" She takes a bite out of her frosted bear claw
"I read pretty much on my time off. I haven't got the time for a good book now, so not so much anymore."
"So are you in a relationship?"
Cas squints at the question
Jo continues "Don't worry, I'm not interested. Not to say you aren't a great guy, I'm just a bit curious"
"Oh. Uh no I'm not. I haven't been with anyone for a while. The thought hasn't really come across my mind to date or anything..." Cas' watch begins beeping. "SHIT. Oh Shoot. I'm late" Cas hits his knee on the table he stands up so fast. He grabs his shoulder bag and coffee and begins to hurry for the door to the shop before stopping abruptly and turning back around
"Did you need a ride anywhere? I could drop you off"
Jo smiles and waves her hand in dismissal "Thats o.k I'll take the bus to my car. Thanks for the coffee"
Cas smiles and nods politely. He exits the building to hurry to his car and get back to work.
Jo sits back and smirks as she sips her coffee.
Back at work Cas swivels in his office chair waiting for the inevitable call to the I.T department. He plays with the pencils on his desk, arranging and rearranging them every few minutes. after about an hour he decides to get up and stretch his legs. He walks along the floor stopping at his coworker, Garths, desk to say he'll be about for a few minutes and to take any calls. Garth nods and Cas makes his way out of the large 'authorized personnel only' doors by sliding his I.D card into the security scanner. Cas says a few hellos to others in the building on his way to the bathroom.
As he exits the company bathroom which always smells of cinnamon he hears the fire alarm go off.
Cas is a bit confused because there hasn't been a fire here in years, but begins to exit the building none the less. He catches up with Garth and asks what's going on
"I think they are testing the new system. I didn't see a fire drill on the company agenda so I guess its a spur of the moment thing"
Once the west building has exited a voice comes over the intercom, it's not a voice that Cas has heard before. 'Must be new' Cas thinks.
"Sorry for the noise, we're installing a new security system in another wing and it tripped the fire alarm. Y'all are free to go back to work, but you might want to watch going to E or B wing, there's construction goin' on there. Thanks." And the gruff voice ends.
After the voice cuts off everyone goes back to work, including Cas.
He gets back to his office and gets a call for him to head up to E wing 5th floor for technical assistance.
As the voice said, there were plenty of construction crew members working around the building when Cas arrived. Cas is greeted by his boss, Ruby Hughes. Ruby is a strict but kind boss, she's the one who hired Cas.
"Mr. Novak." Ruby walks back toward Cas, she is followed by a tall man wearing a hard hat and holding a clipboard. "This is Mr. Winchester. He is the lead in this construction. I've told him he can borrow you for a while while the work is being done since you are our senior in the I.T department, you might be able to help him the most."
Mr. Winchester steps forward and extends his hand "You can call me Dean." he says.
"The voice" Cas says without thinking
"Excuse me?" Dean asks, confused.
"I'm sorry. I was just- Hi, hey, I'm Castiel, I work in the I.T department..which...you..probably already knew" Cas shakes Deans hand and internally curses himself for such a bad introduction. Dean smiles and tightens his grip on Cas' hand.
"I'll leave you to get to work. If you have any questions, you can ask Castiel." Ruby smiles tightly and exits the room being cautious of the open wires and people.
"So should we get started?" Dean asks handing the clipboard to Cas who nods
"Great." Cas follows the man to the technical part of the operation so they can get started.