Sam sat at a table within the diner that was closest to his motel. A little run down thing with only one waitress and a cook running the place at any given time. The waitress, Sam never did get her name, was small women with light chestnut hair. She had kept side-eyeing Sam and giving him filtration smiles whenever their eyes met, but he only returned them with a smaller, polite smile with tired eyes before returning to the laptop and papers in front of him. It wasn't like she wasn't pretty or anything, in fact, Sam found her quite attractive and if he wanted to he would try and flirt right back, but, he just wasn't in the mood right now. He hadn't been for some time, all of his energy and effects had been focused on finding a way to get Dean and Cas back from… whatever they were. Hell, he didn't know if they were still alive.
Sam quickly banished that thought from his mind and return to the laptop, news articles blurring together. He couldn't afford to think like that. He had tried to summon Cas numerous times in that past couple of months in numerous different ways, but that hadn't worked. It was most likely that wherever Dean and Cas where they were stuck. He had even tired tracking spells for both of them, but, yet again, that had done nothing. His only real hope in all this was that wherever they were, that Dean and Cas were most likely together.
At this point, he was getting beyond dispute. He had already tried to summon a Crossroads Demon, several in fact, to see if he could try and get some information out of them if they had any. But there was no bite. All of the demons that he tried to contact seem to be nowhere around and wasn't that fucking bullshit. For the past seven years or so, demons couldn't seem to get enough of the Winchester Brothers. No matter which way they turn or how fast they drove, a mother fucking demon seemed to be around the corner. And now, when Sam needed one the most and wasn't that fucked up, they were nowhere to be seen.
Crowley was likely hiding far away from Sam. And shit, just the thought of Crowley made Sam even more depressed. Ever since his disappearing act with Kevin he had been trying to get information about him too. However, somewhat surprisingly, Demon activity had been at an all-time low as of lately. Sam was pretty sure that that was all Crowley's doing. He had also tried to summon Crowley several times, but again, there was no fruit for that labour. Kevin phone was also disconnected and tracking spell wasn't working him either.
Soon after he realised that he wasn't going to get anywhere with the demonic crowd, he quickly turns his attention to the Angelic flock.
He sat there for a moment when he realised that he had turned to Demons first before he turned to the Angels and took a second to look at his life from an outside perspective. Where he was less wary of Demons then he was of Angel. Even if it was only slightly. Very, very slightly.
The reason for this, of course, was that you could always trust a Demon to double-cross you the first chance that they got. Angels on the other hand... Well, they were either smart enough to feign innocent and peace until they got what they wanted or they were naive enough to believe in what they were told and took it for gospel. Even if they were in the wrong, the latter type of Angels wouldn't figure it out until it was too late.
But, the Angels were a bust too. For the most part, the Angels seem to be quiet quite too. No actions to restart the Apocalypse or any hint of a Civil War continuing. From what Sam could make out of it, they all just seemed... Lost. He hadn't been able to get in contact with that many Angels, but from the ones that he had, they all, for a lack of a better word, seemed really dejected. He had to admit that he did feel a little sorry for them. The little information that Sam could get out of them was that for the moment, they were just trying to figure out what they were going to do. Sam had slightly panicked at that, but after a belief talk, with Holy Oil by his side and a very visual Angel blade up his sleeve, they all assured him that they weren't going to try a bring the end of the world again, seeing as how that had turned out last time and that they were all tired of fighting each other, so there wasn't going to be another Civil War as far as they could tell. They, however, didn't have any information on Dean and Cas, though. One or two of the Angels that had been loyal to Castiel during the war, promised to look into it, but they hadn't been in contact since. Most other Angel seemed reluctant to help Castiel at all, considering what he did and all, with opening the gate to Purgatory, becoming the new God and murdering a load of their siblings. With the added bonus of letting one of God's deadly creations back into the world, even though he had helped to destroy them soon after. Sam could, begrudgingly, see their point.
Overall he was surprised that he wasn't on their shit lists. Okay, so maybe he was, but the Angels and Demons weren't doing anything about it, so that was surprising. He was pretty sure at this point that he and Dean were on multiple Angel and Demon shit lists with orders to "Kill on sight". But that didn't seem to the case. For the most part, they seem cautious even interacting with him.
Letting out a long-suffering sigh, his shoulder slouched and eyes half closed, he turned towards his coffee. It had more than likely gone cold by now and his salad looked like a pitiful pile by his side half eaten. The briefs of memories crossed his mind and he couldn't help but smile as he heard Dean complain about Sam's choice of food and "to keep that crap away from him" as he scoffed down a burger, or, as Dean had put it "Real food for real men, Sammy."
The smile vanished and was replaced with a grimace of the thoughts of what could be happening to his brother or Cas, his other brother in every way, apart from blood and no one could make him think otherwise. Okay, so he had made some mistakes, but so had he and Dean. But he always tried to make up for them and always protected him and Dean, even if he when about it in all the wrong ways and got hurt in the process.
Even after months of research and tracking across the country, he still had no idea about what had happened to Dean or Cas.
Sam ran a hand across his pale face, rubbing his thumb and forefinger against his eyes, tiring to rub some of the sleepiness away. In the hopes of gaining more energy he gulped down the disgusting tasting coffee, that he assumed would have tasted a lot nicer when it was hot, and proceeded to stare blankly down at the pieces of paper in front of him. All the coffee seemed to do was to sit heavily on his stomach.
He knew that going too long without sleep was dangerous, especially in his line of work. Lucifer had made that abundantly clear when he was in Sam's head, yet even with Cas taking away the hallucinations the nightmares of his time in The Cage and of his time as a Hunter still haunted him. Make sleeping for more than a few hours a night a scarce thing.
The diner wasn't very busy. The sun shown through the clear glass windows, reflecting off the recently wiped down surfaces. In one corner, there was an old couple sitting together and drinking coffee while doing a crossword puzzle; an old routine by the looks of it. Three tables down a family sat quietly, the parents obviously tired and their small children sat soundlessly while they were drawing on some paper. The quiet scratching of their pencils lessened the suffocating silence, but not by much.
Staring continuously at the laptop and getting nowhere, was starting to annoy Sam. Couple that with little sleep, particularly no food and the five cups of coffee that he had had in the past three alone was starting to give Sam a headache.
He was getting nowhere fast. Just like yesterday. And the day before that, and the day before that. Just like the last three fucking months. He was just about ready for chuck the laptop through the window and...
He did know how long he could continue like this.
In the back of his mind, he could hear the sound of the diner door opening and the bell on top of it give a little ring. The diner was quiet and peaceful, all things considering, so he didn't bother to look up and see who had walked in. He didn't really register that someone had walked in. His mind cloudy and head heavy. He just wanted to sleep. To sleep without the constant recurring nightmares of Dean trapped or dead. No way of Sam being able to save him. The nightmare of Cas laying on the floor blooded and broken. The burn marks of wings scorched out behind him.
The moment he realised that someone else had walked into the diner and that something was wrong, was the moment someone sat in the chair opposite to him. The person just slid into the booth without a word and calmly placed their forearms on the table, hands laid flat and folded in front of them.
Sam quickly tensed, his right hand steadily made its way to Ruby's knife, hidden safely in the fold of his jacket which was laying next to him.
He ran his eyes over the person, a woman, to assess the threat. For all intensive purposes, the woman sitting opposite to him seemed harmless. But then again, some of the most dangerous things that he had come across had looked purposely harmless. But as he looked closer let, kept his eyes trained on her, he could see there was something clearly... Off about this women. Sam couldn't put his finger on it because the harder he looked the more he noticed almost everything seemed off about her. The more he looked the more he wanted to look away. To look away and just ignore her. Ignore it?
The woman's hair was just too black, not dye but just, too dark. Like the light couldn't reflect off it. Her skin was pale also, the darkness of her hair making it more so, but it seemed to be... Glowing? It wasn't a pleasant, warm glow, but a hast, bright glow. Her eyes were crinkled at the edges because of her smiling and they just seemed too old of someone who looked that young. She appeared to be no older than her early twenties, but her eyes looked ancient. They reminded him of Castiel's eyes. Holding secrets of a long forgotten past. Eyes that had seen endless wars and countless lives. The smile was the one thing that took Sam a moment to realise what was wrong with it. It looked someone who didn't know what a smile was had tried to copy someone else's smile, but couldn't quite get it right.
He scanned the room to find that no one else was paying attention to the new arrival and were all content to carry on with what they were doing.
Turning his attention back to his unexpected guest and tightening his grip on the knife, a gun would bring too much attention if the situation turns bad, he waited for something to happen but, there were was nothing. She just sat there, smiling at him.
Finally, after an unspecified amount of time that seemed to drag on for an eternity, she said,
"Forgive me if I am wrong, but I do believe that we are to exchange pleasantries." Her voice soft, silk-like and the way she spoke made Sam think about the way that women would talk in the old western movie that he and Dean use to marathon with Bobby one their very rare days off. And wasn't that a kick to balls.
Sam just stared at her. Not knowing what to really do, he just replied with,
"Er, yeah."
She smiled a little wider and that just made Sam even more uncomfortable.
"Hello." She responded. Nothing more.
With another quick scan around the diner, he concluded that everything was still the same.
Narrow his eyes at the woman and straightening himself, pulling back his shoulders to make himself appear bigger, he gave a short and firm hello back.
The silence between them seems to be deafening.
"I do believe that I am making you uncomfortable, I apologise. Introducing myself would make you more at ease, correct?" At her inquiry, Sam nodded. The more information he could get out of her without revealing any himself would be a bonus.
The women straighten, looking down at herself as she ran her hand down top, a simple plain white t-shirt. Meeting his glaze again she placed her hands in her lap and cleared her throat.
"Well then." She stated. "Hello Samuel Winchester, I am Azrael."