Chapter 2

The next morning Victoria found Sam and Dean in the kitchen. She knew they were planning to hunt down the Tengu the next 24 hours, if they could find its location.

"Where's Bobby?", she asked

"He got up early. Now he's out in the lot roaming around", Sam replied.

"So, have you sniffed anything out yet?", she asked as she went to get herself some breakfast.

"Yeah…", Dean replied

"…a lead ran in over the police radio just about half an hour ago. Three lumberjacks disappeared into thin air this morning, just about 5 miles east of the spot where Big Bird tried to rip my head of three days ago. We're pretty sure we've got the right spot"

Victoria sat down at the table with her bowl of cereal, before changing her mind and getting back up.

"No, this won't do", she said

"What?"

Both Dean and Sam looked at her slightly confused.

"We cannot sit in here when it's warm and sunny outside. We're eating on the porch"

She walked out of the kitchen, without turning to see if they followed her. Dean and Sam looked at each other for a second, before Dean spoke;

"As long as there's no dead lumberjacks falling out of the sky"

Then they both got up with their food and followed in her wake.

She had just opened the front door, when she saw him sitting on the porch bench. 'Okay, bad idea'. She thought to herself, but as she made to turn around she heard Dean and Sam coming through the hall behind her. Thankful, she stepped out onto the porch, knowing that extra company would arrive instantly.

"Hey, Cas! What are you sitting out here for?", Dean enquired as he saw the angel sitting there, starring out over the car lot.

"I'm thinking"

"Thinking of what?"

"I'm pretty sure something is evolving. The other angels seem to be on alert. They're searching the area around Western Nebraska, for some reason. I can't tell what it is, but I think it's important"

"Is it Lucifer?", Sam asked

"No, I don't think so, there would be more signs". Castiel tore his gaze away from the horizon and look around at them all.

"So, what's your plan?"

"Now, Sam and I plan to go on a little bird hunting, and with the right shoes the odds are that we'll bring home giant chicken wings for supper."

Victoria looked around.

"So, what about me? Any new leads we need to take a closer look at? I closed down the lead on Lucifer in New Orleans. The whole thing was cold as an icicle and to be honest I don't think there ever was anything there". She chewed down her last mouthful of cereal.

Sam leaned back in the chair, shading his eyes against the sun.

"Okay, well I suggest that you stay here and go through all news coming out of the Western Nebraska area the last couple of days. If Cas feels that there's something going on up there, I think it's worth looking into. What do you say Cas?"

"Well, I could go and start searching through Nebraska, but I probably wouldn't be able to avoid the other angels"

Sam made an understanding nod.

"And we need to stay under the radar. So, what's your approach?"

"Well, I can't go look and I don't know what I'm looking for. But I picked up an old book the angels were speaking of in connection with Nebraska" He cleared his throat in a nervous manner, before he continued. "… So I think I'll stay here and see if I can find anything of interest in that"

An alarm sounded in Victoria's head by the thought of being alone with him the whole day. Dean just looked at Castiel with a frown.

"What, you can't just look at a book and tell its content?"

Castiel looked back at him with those serious eyes.

"No, why would you think that?"

"Eh, you can read minds but not books?"

"I can't read a closed mind no more than I can read a closed book"

Sam shrugged his shoulder.

"That actually makes sense"

Dean could do nothing but respond with his own shrug, before he got up from the table.

"Well, I guess we better get going Sam. We got the destination and we got the right footwear, so this should be a piece of cake"

"Don't you think it would be a good idea if Cas went with you?..." Victoria heard the hint of desperation in her own voice.

They all looked around at her.

"… You know… we're talking about a flock of giant man eating bird spirits. Wouldn't it be wise with some backup?...", she tried to sound convincing

"… I mean, with the apocalypse coming, I'd like to have you both back in one piece…"

Pause

"… well, each of you… in your separate… piece…"

She breathed in. This just wasn't going well.

Dean gave her a mystified look. In fact they all did.

"Well, we appreciate your concern but I think we can handle it. Besides if things should get hot Cas got his cell phone. Right Cas?"

Castiel reached into his pocket and took out the phone. It lay in his outstretched palm like he didn't much like to touch it.

"I'm not sure I like this thing" he said, while giving it a suspicious look.

She couldn't help but smile. He was just so damn cute.

Dean dismissed the comment with a gesture; "Sure you do, gramps. Now, we all set to go? Okay!"

He continued into the house as Sam began collecting the plates. Victoria was all too eager to follow them, so she helped Sam with the plates to head for the kitchen. She was careful not to look at Castiel, who she felt was following her with suspicious eyes.

"Is everything alright?"

Dean and Sam had just left and she had arranged herself behind Bobby's desk with the laptop, the phone and her notes. Quite relaxed that they could burry themselves in the work and she would be able to drown out any distracting thoughts and feelings.

But there he stood and she didn't know what to answer. 'Yes, as long as you stay outside the red tape and only speak to me about work. Or maybe 'No, because my brain has a melt down and I just can't think straight when you look at me that way'

"Yeah… yeah, everything is good" She tried to lean back in a relaxed posture.

"Why?", she then asked hopeful putting up an innocent look.

He returned it with an examining one.

"You have been acting different. You spent a lot of time in your room and you have gone quiet. You used to speak a lot…". She felt like he was looking straight through her relaxed facade"… Now you seem distracted. Something is bothering you"

'Yes. It's bothering me that I mustn't just reach out and grab you'

… may not…

"Yes, okay I have felt a little besides myself lately" She paused, before continuing. "I think this whole apocalypse thing is just a little surreal to me. It's quite hard getting to terms with the end of the world approaching"

She hoped this explanation would satisfy him. At least there was some truth in there to.

"Okay", he said after a pause, but he didn't look all convinced.

She smiled what she felt was a sad smile.

"… I just need a little time to adjust"

"That's quite understandable. Just don't lock yourself away with it all. You only need to look at Dean and Sams histories to know that keeping things bottled up inside, does not make for positive outcomes. Won't you promise me that you'll …"

"Sure, I will"

"We'll find a way to stop Lucifer…" , he said. "We still have options"

"Yeah", she turned her attention to the computer. "We just need to find the old hell raiser"

As the day went on she actually managed to relax. She sat behind the desk reading newspaper articles, official letters, and private blogs and so on, from the Western Nebraska area and he sat at the coffee table studying books and scrolls, occasionally disappearing only to reappear with more written paper in all shapes and sizes. When she stumbled upon something they would discuss it, but when the afternoon approached she had not yet found anything of relevance.

It almost felt like the old times. Before it all got awkward. Three months ago, when she could still sit and talk with him for hours, about religion and faith, science and human beings, or trying to explain phenomenon's like reality tv(something she had a hard time grasping herself) and videogames. Also humor had been a returning topic as Deans usually evaded him, although she felt he was beginning to grasp the concept of sarcasm when all four of them had been sitting in a diner, Dean ordering a large bacon/cheese burger with extra bacon and cheese, and Castiel had asked if he was sure he didn't want some fries with that heart attack. Dean had almost choked on his beer at that point. It had been then, in between becoming close friends and her brain melting down, that it had all been just great.

Victoria leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms, with a squeaking sound.

"Well, I'm getting nowhere fast over here. Any luck on your side?"

When she got no answer she looked up. The room was empty. She hadn't noticed him leaving. She wondered how many times during the day she had been sitting there, talking to herself.

She straightened up in the chair and refocused on the task at hand. She had been starring at an article about animal killings in a local newspaper for about five minutes, when she heard the shuffling sound and Castiel appeared in the living room.

"I might have found something"

He grabbed the old book from the coffee table and in three steps he was standing beside her chair.

"Could you find those air photos you showed me of the forest fire?" he said as he opened the book on a page of some strange drawings and text in a foreign language.

"Um, yeah… sure", she replied, slightly taken aback. She went back in her search history and found the pictures taken from a helicopter above the border where the charred lands meet with the fresh untouched forest.

"These drawings here… ", he pointed at the shadowy, sinister picture in the book he had laid down in front of the computer. "… they are supposedly a prophet's vision of the chaos that will fall over the land announcing the coming of The Anti Christ"

He rested his hand on the back of her chair, as he turned the page. Now she could see how the lines in the shadowy drawings coincided with the borderline between the wasteland and the fresh forest. She could also see him out of the corner of her eye, standing close to her. He spoke something to her and she tried to focus on the line his finger was trailing in the air in front of the areas of burned forest on the screen. He leaned in to look more closely at the picture in the book. He was so close to her, she could feel the heat emitting from his body. Her heart started pounding in her chest.

"Mm hmm", she answered indistinctly, as he probably expected some kind of response to what he was saying. However she couldn't gather her thoughts around a proper response. She wasn't paying attention to the drawings or the computer anymore. She watched his face and those deep, blue eyes, as he examined his findings. His lips were moving but she didn't really hear what he was saying anymore. She just watched his lips… and then, without really registration her own action, she leaned forward and kissed him. She filled her lungs with the air he had just exhaled, her heart swelled and all went quiet as she closed her eyes and pressed her mouth against his soft, dry lips.

Then her brain caught up with her. The sound of her rushing blood filled her ears and panic gripped her. She pulled away from him with a jerk, which sent her back in the chair. For three seconds her muzzles was frozen, while her insides were twisting around in knots, and all she could do was sit there, returning his surprised expression. Then she gained control and in a split second she was up of the chair, sending it rolling back against the wall, ran out the door, up the staircase, down the hall to her room, where she slammed the door behind her.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no… ", she kept repeating to herself a she paced the floor of the room.

'What the fuck are you doing?', her own brain screamed at her. 'What is wrong with you? You don't go around kissing angels'. Not unless you had some masochistic side and wanted to humiliate yourself, or if you wanted to burn in hell, or something like that. She just knew there were hundreds of reasons why she shouldn't do something like that. If Dean and Sam's experiences have taught her anything, it was that you should not fraternize with the kids form the other side of the fence. That being the lower or the upper fence. It would unavoidably bring about bad judgment calls and hopeless situations. She should be concentrating on helping to save the world for heaven's sake, not jeopardizing the whole collaboration by acting like a lovesick schoolgirl. And who was she to put Cas in this situation? In the best case scenario he would just feel sorry for her and she didn't even want to think of the worst.

Then she stopped dead in her tracks. What if he decided to come up and talk to her about what had just happened. She couldn't very well keep him out. For a second she considered the angel repellent symbol, but then again that would kind of be adding insult to injury. After all it was her who should just disappear.