Beep-beep-beep-beep-HONK.
Dean flinched in the driver's seat, his hands lurching up to grab the steering wheel when he realized he'd been sitting at a green light for far too long. The person behind him had apparently grown impatient and laid on their horn and he almost reached out the window to flip him off...except he was too concerned about why he hadn't noticed the light changing in the first place. Checking the road just out of habit, he stepped on the gas and continued on down the road, watching his rearview mirror closely as the guy behind him ranted in his car, following along. How long had he been sitting there? He couldn't quite remember, but apparently it had been long enough to piss the guy off royally. It was just a green light, no one was going to die from missing a green light, but he was literally losing his shit.
He'd driven this highway every day for the last six years, he knew it like the back of his hand and for some reason, it looked different. Wider somehow, or maybe longer? He wasn't exactly sure what was wrong with it, or why he was even on it to begin with. It was mid-day, on his off day. He only took this highway going to and from work. So why was he there now? Maybe he'd forgotten something at the shop, or maybe they'd called him in? He couldn't quite remember, but he just kept driving. After a few miles, the driver behind him pulled off onto a side road and Dean was left alone on the highway. It was more peaceful like that, he could slow down a bit and just take his time. Savor it while he had the chance. Like he wouldn't be back on it again tomorrow.
The farther down the highway he drove, still wondering how it suddenly become so damn long, he spotted another car pulled off onto the shoulder, hood open and steam billowing up into the air. He very well could have kept driving, but there was something about it that caught his attention. He could see a figure sitting in the drivers seat as he pulled off onto the shoulder behind the four door blue Toyota. It was the newer model, certainly less charismatic than his '67 Chevy, but he didn't complain. He couldn't count how many new cars rolled through his shop every day. It was just something he had come to terms with, some people just didn't share the same passion for good cars that he did. Putting the car in park, he cut off the engine and stepped out of the car slowly. He had no way of knowing who the person was in the driver seat. If they were some kind of serial killer fishing for a victim or if it really was just some poor some of a bitch who'd blown out their radiator. As he inched closer to the driver side door, he could see the window was rolled down, the driver sitting with their head leaned back on the headrest, no doubt irritated to hell and back.
"Hey buddy, you alright in there?" he called out, watching as the driver flinched, hitting the horn slightly. Dean stood back, watching closely as the door swung open and man in a black suit stepped out. It was damn near ninety degrees out, he wasn't sure who the hell would leave the house wearing something like that, but he guessed he was a business man. His dark hair was ruffled, no doubt frazzled by being stranded on the side of an empty highway, bright blue eyes searching Dean's face for something. He was probably trying to gauge whether or not Dean was some kind of serial killer himself, driving around in an antique car with ripped up jeans and a band t-shirt on. He looked like he'd just rolled out of bed and maybe he had, he really couldn't recall. "You alright?" he asked again, gesturing to the car and the steam that was still going strong. He couldn't have had the engine off for more than five minutes or so.
The man turned and looked at the car for a moment, frowning as he turned back to face Dean and just shrugged his shoulders like he was completely lost. "I-I don't know what happened. It's a rental, I just-" the man rambled, gesturing between himself and the car. "It's not supposed to be smoking like that, is it?"
He smirked a bit, rounding the open door so that he could look at the engine. Leaning on the front end with one hand, he tried to wave some of the steam away to get a good look at what was going on. "It's not smoke, it's steam," he corrected, frowning when he couldn't get a good look at the problem, they'd have to wait for it to completely cool before they could do anything to fix it. "Looks like a busted radiator hose, but I can't be sure until it cools and I can check it. You call a tow service?" The man had followed him to the front end, shaking his head as Dean questioned him about a tow and he wondered if the guy should even be driving if he didn't know to call a tow truck when he was stuck in the middle of nowhere.
"My cellphone is dead," he admitted, pulling a sleek black phone from his pocket for Dean to see and he just shook his head lightly. "Everything has gone wrong from the moment I landed. They messed up my rental, so I got this instead just to get out of there. Lost my phone charger somewhere in the damn airport and now this! I'm late getting to my house to meet the moving truck, they've probably called me a million times already and here I am, stuck on the side of the road and-"
"Hey, hey buddy, calm down," Dean demanded, stepping back from the car and lowered the hood. The man watched him in confusion as he reached into his back pocket and pulled his wallet out, retrieving one of the business cards and passed it over to the guy. "I own a garage in town, I can have someone and come tow your ride in and we'll get it fixed in no time. If it's just a hose, it's an easy fix, like five minutes. You want me to give you a ride in?"
"Dean...Winchester?" the man muttered, reading off the name on the card.
"Yep, was my dad's garage before he passed. I was supposed to run it with my brother, but he went off to college, so it's just me and a couple other guys. We do pretty well, fairest prices in town."
The man nodded, tucking the card into his coat pocket as he turned toward the car, reaching inside to pull the keys from the ignition and shut the door. Dean watched him closely as he rounded to the trunk and opened it. He pulled out a large suitcase and sat it onto the ground. And then another suitcase. And another. Dean just shook his head, pulling out his own cellphone and hand dialed a number. His was a lot older than the sleek model the guy had pulled out but it did the job. He only had to wait for the phone to ring once before a grumpy voice echoed through the receiver.
"Winchester's, you break 'em, we fix 'em," the man grumbled and Dean rolled his eyes.
"We've really got to change that," he groaned, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"'cuse me?"
"Bobby, its Dean. Hey look, tell Ash I need him out on highway ten. Towin' in a...'14 Toyota...what the hell is this thing-it's a damn blue Toyota. Only car out here on the shoulder headed into town. Busted radiator hose."
"Only you could find work on your day off, Dean..."
"Tell me about it man, just have Ash get his ass out here. I'm bringing the driver back in to the shop, you wanna go ahead and pull a new hose so I can fix it as soon as he gets it there?"
The line was silent for a moment, Bobby not speaking for a long time before he finally huffed loudly, papers shuffling around on the desk. "How pretty is she?" he asked and Dean started.
"W-What?"
"This girl Dean, how pretty is she? She's gotta be a sight if you're going through all this trouble for her."
Dean glanced down toward the trunk of the car where the man stood with his luggage, looking around the highway aimlessly. For some damn reason, he could feel his cheeks burning a bit as he stared down at him with wide eyes. "It's a dude, Bobby," he coughed, bringing his hand up to scratch the stubble on his cheek. When was the last time he left the house without shaving? "He just moved to town, everything went to shit, trying to cut him a break. Just, get Ash out here!"
He hung up the phone, stuffing it into his pocket before Bobby could say anything else and shook his head lightly. Was he really that bad that if he was helping someone, it had to be a pretty girl he wanted to sleep with? Sure he'd had his indiscretions, who hadn't really? But that didn't mean being a good samaritan meant he was just trying to get into the person's pants. He didn't care how attractive they were, even the utterly lost man standing at the end of the car.
"Jeeze dude, how many suitcases you got in there?" Dean chuckled, moving toward the end of the car and scooped up one of the suitcases, trying to shrug off the conversation with Bobby.
"I'm sorry, I just bought a house here," he huffed, grabbing the other two suitcases and following Dean to the trunk of his Chevy. "Castiel."
"Excuse you?" Dean muttered, popping open the trunk and blinking over at the guy in confusion as he moved to put the other suitcases into the trunk beside the first.
"My name is Castiel. Novak. It's a pleasure to meet you Dean Winchester."
"That's a weird name. Castiel." It didn't sound like a human name, more like something for an alien maybe, but he didn't elaborate on it, closing the trunk. "New in town huh? Why the move to Lawrence?"
"Work," Castiel answered automatically. It was almost too quick a response, like he had been waiting for the question to crop up. "I'm starting work tomorrow at the hospital."
"A doctor? Fancy. What are you, brain surgeon?" he muttered, not really all that interested, but trying to make conversation anyway. He didn't want the ride back into town to be awkward and Bobby's words bouncing around in his head were already shooting that to hell. Was he only going out of his way to help Castiel because he was a good looking man? Was that just how his brain decided to operate?
"Anesthesiologist, I'll be working mostly in the I.C.U with trauma patients," he sighed heavily, almost as if he were dreading it. Dean gestured to the passenger side of the car, thankful when Castiel just nodded and rounded the car to get in.
"You don't sound like you enjoy your job all that much," Dean stated as he slid into the driver's seat and started the car. "Why do it then?"
"It can just be depressing sometimes. I like my work, really I do. Most of the time, the other doctors can pull a person back, you know? Sometimes, they can't. And my job is to stand by and watch them go, trying to make it as comfortable for them as possible. There are good days and bad days, as with every job."
Dean nodded, checking his side mirror to make sure there were no cars coming down the highway as he pulled off of the shoulder and onto the road. He sure as hell knew all about good and bad days at work. There would be days when every car he worked on was a simple fix, then days where everything under the damn sun would go wrong and he'd go home with knots and bruises he didn't have before leaving the house. He'd broken bones and nearly lost an arm once. But he loved working on cars, so he always went back to it, no matter what.
"Good and bad days, yeah I know all about that...," he sighed, staring out the window blankly as they drove.
"Yes, I'm sure you do, Dean."
Despite fearing the awkward silence on the drive back to the shop, the car stayed quiet and it was peaceful. There was something about Castiel that was just easy to be around without having to fill the space with words. Every now and again, he would glance across the bench seat at the man, his dark hair ruffled by the wind, staring off into the distance. It seemed like he was in deep thought, a frown etched onto his face that Dean felt was permanent. He hadn't seen the guy smile once since he'd met him. Of course he had a lot going on all at once, but it wasn't the end of the world. He'd get to his house and get his things put away, Dean would fix the hose on his car and it would be good to go in like ten minutes and he could always buy a new phone charger. It would all work out in the end.
By the time they made it back, Ash had somehow miraculously collected Castiel's car, towed it back to the shop and was gone again before they even stepped out of the car. Bobby was elbow deep in the thing, pulling the old busted hose off as Dean lead Castiel over to the car. Bobby was a short older man, graying hair with a trucker hat crammed onto his head that Dean was sure was permanently attached. He had a short beard that collected more food than he cared to think about and a mean temper if you rubbed him the wrong way. But he was the closest thing to family Dean had aside from his brother and he couldn't have asked for a better mechanic to work with.
"Hey Bobby, almost done?" he muttered, leaning into the car, staring at the old hose. It had literally split in half like someone had taken a razor-blade to the damn thing. It was one of the reason he didn't trust rental cars, they did all sorts of shit to try and scam a person out of money. If Castiel had been in the middle of say, a busy intersection, and the car decided it was going to just give up on him because of the radiator hose he could have been in a serious accident. They may not get any money from Castiel directly thanks to insurance, but that would mean the poor guys rates would go up and he'd still be cheated out of cash in the long run. All that for a damn fifteen dollar fix.
"Almost done pullin' this piece o' crap hose off!" Bobby griped, holding the thing up for them to see. "Damn thing might as well be made outta play dough. Who the hell put this on your car son?"
Castiel fidgeted in place, his blue eyes jumping between Dean and Bobby sheepishly. Dean just stood back, crossing his arms over his chest and glared over at Bobby as he dropped the busted hose onto the shop floor and continued digging around in the engine, checking the other hoses and parts he could easily reach.
"It's...a rental," Castiel muttered, finally finding his voice. "I know absolutely nothing about cars."
"Well, I can see that," Bobby sighed, pulling himself back up out of the engine and looked at Dean wearily. Dean knew that look, it meant there was something wrong. He dropped his arms and waved his hand for Bobby to just get out whatever the bad news was. "It's an easy fix, really is, if we had the part."
"What do you mean, we don't have the part? It's a damn radiator hose!" Dean snapped, frowning at the old man. "It's not like it's a hard part to get."
"No, it's not," Bobby growled back, a warning sound that meant Dean had no right to be snapping at him, even if he was technically the boss. Bobby was far older than he was and he'd been like an Uncle to him growing up. There was no doubt in Dean's mind that he would probably still be able to throw him over his knee and bust his ass if he got uppity with him. "We put the last one we had that would fit this radiator on a car yesterday. That Camry, remember?"
Dean reached a hand up to brush over his face roughly, turning to look at Castiel as he remembered the piece of shit Camry they'd replaced damn near everything on the day before. It belonged to some old crazy cat lady who didn't take care of it in the first place and her grandson wanted it fixed for her so he wouldn't have to chauffeur her around to get cat food anymore. They'd heard the whole damn sob story and it made Dean want to rip his teeth out with a rusty wrench at the time.
"Sorry Cas, it's gonna take a bit," he huffed, gesturing for him to walk back out of the shop and into the adjoining office area. "You want me to call you a cab to take you home and I'll go get the damn part myself?"
Castiel tilted his head to the side, staring at him in confusion for a moment before he glanced down at Dean's hand and noted that he was trying to usher him out of the shop. He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it, turning to walk into the office slowly.
"Is it terribly expensive? Should I pay for it now?" Castiel asked, watching Dean closely as he rounded the corner of the counter and grabbed a pen and a notepad.
"Nah, it's like fifteen bucks dude. Don't even worry about it. How about you give me your number and we'll call it even?" Dean mumbled, shoving the pen and paper closer to the dark haired man with a smile. Castiel's eyes jumped between the paper and Dean's face, a pink blush creeping up over his cheeks and Dean just smiled wider. He'd always been a bit of a flirt, but in this particular moment, that hadn't been his goal. At least not yet. He reached up and pushed the paper a little closer, nodding toward it. "So I can call you when your car is fixed?"
Castiel jerked a little, reaching up quickly to grab the pen and knocked it back toward Dean's side of the counter. He was so flustered it was a little adorable, apologizing profusely as he snatched the pen up and jotted down his name on the paper, scribbling his number down under it. Dean just smirked down at the paper as he underlined the name "Castiel" twice and it finally occurred to him that maybe he'd stared at him in confusion before because Dean had shortened his name. Castiel just sounded too damn weird and it was easier to remember Cas. So Cas it was, for the short amount of time he knew the guy.
"That is my new home phone," he croaked, his voice a little strained. "And this is my cell. But that won't work until I get a new charger."
Dean nodded, pulling the paper back when Castiel had jotted down the second number and turned to pin it on the wall behind him. Scooting to the end of the counter, he scooped up the phone and hit the speed dial, listening intently for the cab service to pick up on the other end. It seemed to take forever and when the phone finally clicked over all he could hear was a steady beeping. It wasn't like an answering machine, the beeps too constant and continual, more like-
"Hello? Can I help you?" a woman suddenly snapped on the other end of the line and Dean blinked a few times to clear his head. Castiel was watching him in concern, no doubt hearing the woman snapping at him and Dean just cleared his throat and continued on with requesting a cab for the guy.
"Alright," Dean sighed, hanging up the phone. "I'm going to head out and get the part. When the cab get's here you tell them to put it on the shops bill and don't worry about a thing. I'll call you as soon as we get the car fixed and you can come pick it up tomorrow."
"Thank you, Dean Winchester," Castiel sighed, smiling at him softly. "You are a far more generous person than you let on."
"Hey, just call it a welcome to town gift. And don't tell anyone, they'll all think I've gone soft or something man."
Castiel chuckled lightly, walking outside with Dean as he headed to his car. The dark haired man stood by the door, waving lightly as he pulled the door open on his Chevy and prepared to lower himself inside. "Of course not, Dean. We wouldn't want to ruin your reputation."