Summary: Takes place at the start of Season 5, months after Faythe has joined the boys. I guess you could consider this quite a fluffy chapter so enjoy.
CHAPTER TWO
Lucifer was walking free and rather than sticking together the Winchester boys had split. Faythe could understand their reasons – hunting when you can't trust each other or yourself was never a good thing – but she couldn't help wanting to slap them both over the back of the head. The apocalypse was no time to be splitting up. Not that she could really talk. She and the angel Castiel couldn't seem to have a conversation without having some form of argument, which was not conductive to fighting the apocalypse or finding god. Not always but frequently it would end in petty name calling and sometimes Cas would vanish again before he'd even remembered to give Dean whatever message he'd arrived to tell.
Faythe tried to bounce her time around between Sam and Dean as well as taking care of demon omens too far away for Dean to travel quickly and checking up on Bobby who didn't appear to be handling his new wheel chair status too well… it was on a very rare occasion that she would pop in to see how Castiel's god hunt was going.
She had just taken care of a particularly feisty nest of demons who'd been keen to flatten a small Louisiana town when Faythe got a call from Bobby. "Faythe" he said when she answered, not bothering for a hello "Sam's tracked some omens not far from where he's staying."
"He's back to hunting?" she asked surprised cleaning demon blood from her angel blade.
"No" Bobby sighed "I had'ta send a group of local hunters."
"Okay" she frowned "what're you calling me for?"
"Would'ya just go talk to him?"
"Bobby… we can't make Sam hunt, as much as we could really use his help…"
"No but maybe you could talk some sense into the boy…"
She ran a hand through her loose dark hair and looked up at the night sky, twinkling with a dozen stars. She sighed. Sitting under a pollution less sky was one of her first memories, staring up at the sky and just loving the freedom of stars… "Okay, I'll swing by for a beer but I won't force him to hunt Bobby."
"That's all I ask" he hung up.
Faythe set about finishing up her hunt. It wouldn't do to just leave the demon bodies lying around so she pulled them unto a small mile and using her abilities set a controlled fire and allowed it to burn until they were little more than ash and bone fragments. By the time she was finished her head was pounding and her nose was trickling blood steadily but she didn't care. She retrieved her bag of belongings from a bush she'd hidden it in and teleported her way to the motel Sam was living in. She knocked on the door, swaying on her own feet.
Sam cracked the door open just a bit, but looked relived when he saw it was her and ushered her inside. She saw him put away a simple kitchen knife and lock the door again once she was inside. "Since when did you knock on doors?" he asked jokingly.
"I thought it was polite" she replied dabbing her nose "do you have a tissue?"
He started to notice her bleeding nose and quickly retrieved tissue from the bathroom. Faythe thanked him quietly sitting in a chair and leaning forward to allow her nose to bleed. "How hard did you push yourself?" Sam frowned knowing she only got nosebleeds like this when she pushed her abilities too far.
"Uh…" she hesitated answering "well, I actually slept last night which is surprising. I've been bouncing around between you and Dean and Bobby and omens and hell I even popped in on Castiel once."
Sam winched, she saw him do that guilty puppy dog look before he said "Faythe…you don't have to keep an eye on me, I'm not hunting…"
"You might not be hunting Sam but that doesn't mean something isn't hunting you. Anyway…you're my friend" she threw him a shy smile "I don't have many friends. I'd like to keep the ones I do have. I don't mind, I just have to…not set piles of demons on fire anymore…"
Sam got up and went to his little motel fridge. When he came back he offered her a soda which she took gratefully "hello sugar" she said popping the cap and drinking greedily. Sam grinned and popped the cap off his beer. He would have offered her a beer but he knew the sugar in the fizzy drink would aid her recovery far better than the beer would.
"So, how's things here?" Faythe asked once she'd drank nearly half the can of pop "is that waitress still interested in you?"
"She tried to get my life story" Sam replied sitting on the bed and reclining "and a date."
"Oooh ladies' man" Faythe wriggled her eyebrows making him laugh.
The smile soon dropped and silence settled as Sam gave her an odd look. "Hey, Faythe… you said you've never been to school right?"
"Yeah" she'd mentioned it when Sam and Dean had to go undercover at one of their old schools. She's spent her youth learning from books, having a particular love for Edgar Allan Poe which Sam had noticed she tended to quote on occasion.
"What was your childhood like?"
Faythe frowned as she dabbed the tissue against her top lip to check for more blood on her nose. She didn't find any, pity, she'd have liked an interruption for this conversation. "Sam… it's not a nice story. You don't want to know."
"If I didn't want to know, why would I ask?" he replied softly and she glanced up to see him doing the puppy dog expression again.
"Tsk, Dean told me your puppy eyes would get me in trouble…" she muttered, then sighed "okay. First off… my mum was addicted to demon blood, I told how that's the way Logan – daddy dearest- got the demon blood into me before I was born."
Sam's eyebrows raised "you never told us that."
Faythe knew what he meant. She'd never told him that, not even after finding out he was addicted too. "Yeah because it would've led to my questionable childhood" she replied with another sigh then met his gaze "my mother was an addict raising a child born to hunt. You can imagine what… let's just say the first time I killed a demon I was nine."
"Nine?"
"Not human, remember?" she pointed out "and my mum was there to help… but the point was she never told me about exorcisms. I thought the only way to kill a demon was to also kill the host, I didn't know you could save them."
A look of realisation spread on Sam's face, one mixed with horror as he said "she had you do it for the blood?"
"Yeah… until I witnessed other hunters doing an exorcism… I'd just turned thirteen… I was-well-I was furious with her. Didn't matter though, a couple of weeks later she was killed by a particular asshat of an angel. He's been trying to make me work for him ever since."
"Who?"
"Zachariah" she gave him a grim look "yeah, you knew he recognised me in that footlocker…"
Sam sighed "you should stick with Dean if you want a shot at Zachariah…"
"I'll visit him in a minute, I want to know you're okay first Sam. Bobby's sending hunters after your tip by the way."
"I thought that's why you'd come, to check it out yourself and try get me to hunt…"
"Nah, I have enough to do and I won't make you hunt Sam. It's your decision."
He gave her a thankful smile. They chatted for an hour further, until Faythe had drank two soda's and was feeling far better than when she'd landed on his doorstep. Still she knew she had to go find Dean, and Sam knew it too, so after a hug goodbye she disappeared to go and find Dean.
She didn't know if she was surprised or not when she reappeared in a brothel, but she was certainly surprised to find Castiel there too. Actually… the angel looked terrified, and Dean was smirking so she assumed feather's had been dragged there against his will perhaps. Neither of them noticed she was there until one scantily clad woman appeared with two beers, her eyes landing on Faythe and seemed to light up. "We don't get many women, anything I can get you sweetheart?"
"A coke if you have any" Faythe smiled at the waitress, amused to see how violently Castiel jumped compared to Dean and look at her with a horrified expression.
"Faythe" Dean greeted her leaning back in his seat and giving a lazy grin "where've you been?"
"Taking care of some demons in Louisiana" she replied, taking the glass of coke when the waitress returned and winking at her "thanks love. I visited Sam too."
"You got your eye on our waitress?" Dean grinned.
"I've got demon blood Dean, allow me my wicked side" she grinned at him.
Dean had watched every move and pointed at as he looked at Castiel. "See, she's relaxed Cas. Just chill…uh…wait, Faythe… which team do you play for?"
She frowned at him "what?"
"Team" Dean gave her a pointed look "preference? Boys or girls or… both?"
"Oh" Faythe widened her eyes seeming to understand what he was asking "I…well, I've never thought about it."
"You've never thought about it?" Dean frowned "but you have…haven't you?"
"Have what?"
Dean stared at her for a few moments, then looked at Castiel and covered his face with his hands and groaned. "Are you telling me I'm sitting in a brothel with not one but two bloody virgins?"
Faythe wasn't actually surprised about Castiel but she was a bit annoyed with how Dean frowned at her. "Hey" she snapped at him "some of us just…don't get the chance, okay?"
Dean didn't get to say anything else, interrupted as one of the women came over interested in Cas. Faythe sat quietly, quite amused actually, as the petrified looking angel was taken into the back. Dean sat back down, and she became aware of him watching her. "What?" she growled at him.
"I just… I don't get it, how you haven't-"Dean shook his head "I mean, it's not like you're a bad looker Faythe… your, well, you're very attractive." Dean's eyes lingered on her as he said this, feeling a little more embarrassed than he would have felt telling her this before she'd become a good friend of his. She had tan skin, a round face with round dark eyes and a small mouth usually pulled into a wicked grin or smirk. Yeah, he thought, if he'd seen her across a bar he'd probably hit on her.
"It's not like I haven't had… offers" Faythe shrugged a little awkwardly "I just… Dean it's different for me. I mean one slip up and I accidentally look into the guys mind and know everything he's thinking…"
"Oh…" Dean nodded "yeah okay, that could be awkward. Hey-"he threw her a cocky grin and winked before saying "-of you ever want someone with experience to show you the ropes…"
"Thanks Dean but I think that'd be more awkward than with a stranger-"she stopped talking, just as there was a scream from the back. She and Dean looked at each other and jumped up. It didn't take a lot of thinking to conclude that Castiel had likely done something weird…
Yeah, there stood the angel getting yelled at by the woman before she stormed off. Faythe hung back at the curtain watching the woman head straight for the security while Dean ran to Castiel's side and was soon laughing loudly at whatever the angel had said happened. Faythe didn't care what happened, she saw security heading their way and ran for the boys. "Exit. Now!" she growled at them, pushing them for the fire door. When they burst into the alley though, Dean was still laughing and she was smiling from the slight adrenaline rush. Castiel still looked quite clueless which made Faythe grin more. He was kind of cute like that. They piled into the Impala and returned to the cabin where they were staying. Every now and then Dean would chuckle again, but when they got to the cabin he decided to head off inside and sleep on the battered couch in there.
Faythe decided to stay outside a little longer, sitting on the hood of the Impala and leaning on the window to look up at the stars. She'd done this with Sam and Dean not that long ago… for one night it just felt like nothing bad was happening.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" she sighed.
"Did you speak?" Castiel's rumbling voice made Faythe jump and she looked over her shoulder at him.
"Feathers. I thought you'd have gone inside with Dean."
"Dean is sleeping."
"I wouldn't put it past you to just watch him" she said dryly. There was a pause between them before she looked over at him again and found he too was looking up, an expression of wonder on his face as the stars where reflected in his blue eyes. "Do you want to join me Castiel?" she sighed, patting the hood of the car.
"I do not believe Dean would appreciate my sitting on his car."
"Dean, Sam and I have sat on the car to see the stars a few times" she replied softly turning her attention back up and allowing him to make a decision. It wasn't long before Castiel moved, though he didn't sit on the hood. He just leaned on it. After a while of silence Faythe decided to try speak with the angel and not end up arguing for once. "So I take it the search for your father isn't going so great?"
Castiel said nothing though she thought she saw his jaw twitch irritably. Okay, wrong conversation track…
"Faythe" he surprised her by glancing over his shoulder and asking "back at the…brothel. You told Dean you were a virgin?"
She tensed. "Yeah, I am."
The angel frowned "why? I mean… it's just you… everything about you says sexual maturity…"
"I'm not sure if that is a compliment feathers" she replied "why haven't you lost your v-card?"
"I have never… never had the occasion."
"Well, I've never had the… sense of comfort to do it. Can we drop this, it's a bit personal?"
"You dislike speaking of personal subjects?"
"I'm fine speaking about personal subjects… just not with you."
Castiel turned around fully, tilting his head curiously with a very slight frown. He stared at her for a few seconds sitting on the hood of the car with her knees drawn up to her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs. A look of realisation spread over his features "you don't trust me?"
"No" she answered honestly.
He scowled "what do I have to do for you to trust me? I have rebelled against heaven for all of you. For you, Faythe, I have disobeyed orders – you, you cannot imagine the punishment I received for allowing you to live."
"I never asked you to do that" she snapped at him irritably, hating the growing feeling of guilt in the pit of her stomach. "If you really believed that god has some divine plan for me than that is your fault, and his fault for whatever the other angels did to you. I never asked to be what I am… I never asked to be a freak."
"It doesn't matter what you did or did not ask for. What matters is what happened. I allowed you to live and you treat me with nothing but disrespect and mistrust."
Faythe frowned… if she didn't know better she'd say the emotion that had just flickered through his face was one of hurt, but surely her opinion of him didn't matter enough for that? She shook herself from that idea and replied "Castiel, your still an angel. I am… honestly? I am terrified of you and your kind. I've been hunted by angels before and it's… not the best experience, and I don't want to relive it. I can fight of course but I don't know if I'm good enough to take down anything but a very low ranking angel. How am I to know that you won't receive an order one day, even far into the future, to kill me and because I made the mistake of trusting you that you would do it without my suspecting a thing?"
Castiel stared at her a little longer but eventually he turned around and stared at the floor rather than the sky. "Your reasoning is… quite shrewd. I can understand your fear."
"Thanks?" she frowned not sure if that was an appropriate reply. Anything else she wished to say vanished from her mind however when Castiel whirled around, his tan over coat flapping in the night air, before he grabbed both her ankles and dragged her down the hood of the Impala. Faythe stared up at him with wide shocked eyes as he leaned over her glaring. "Uh… what're you doing feathers?"
"Come" he pulled away from her, walking a few steps away from the car before he turned back around to face her. Curious Faythe slid the rest of the way off the car and took a step forward to approach him. She hesitated when she saw the glint of an angel blade in his hand.
"Castiel?" she asked in a warning voice.
"Come, you do not know if you are good enough to take on an angel? Let us see."
"You want to fight?" she frowned.
"Yes" he nodded once "now attack me Faythe, or would you rather I attacked you?"
"Cas… this isn't a good-" Faythe didn't get a chance to protest further because the angel lunged in a flap of tan coat and she only had a second to remove a wicked dagger from the belt of her jeans. It was a split second decision, she could have used her own angel blade but she refused to kill the only angel helping them at that moment even on an accident. Anyway Dean seemed to be a little attached to him and she doubted he'd like it if she accidentally killed Castiel. The angel blade made a note as it met the metal of her blade just inches from their chests. Faythe's eyes where wide with surprise as she looked at Castiel, whose expression was hard and unemotional.
Faythe pulled back her lips in a snarl and thrust with all her energy pushing him away from her by a few steps. Before he had regained his balance Faythe lunged forward, feigning left with the blade she instead moved in close while he tried to defend against her attack and grabbing his shoulders she wrapped a leg around his and pressed the heel of her foot into his knee. He frowned appearing confused right before his knee gave out and he went crashing to the floor. Faythe had all of three seconds to feel victory however before she realised she was being dragged to the floor too by the grip he had on her elbows. He rolled with her, and she rolled too, struggling with who would have pinned the other, until exhausted Faythe relented and allowed him to pin her to the floor, straddling her stomach. He held her hands above her head by the wrists until she dropped the knife. She lay there her chest heaving a she panted and stared up at the angel.
Eventually she had the breath to say "not good enough to beat an angel then?"
"On the contrary" he replied "you are very fast, faster than I gave you credit for. Had you not already been exhausted when we started this, and used your angel blade and whatever other abilities you have at your disposal then perhaps you might win."
"Well…thanks. Maybe I'll challenge you another time" she tilted her head at him in question to see if this was okay and saw him give her a single sharp nod as Castiel got up from her and offered her a hand. After slight hesitation she accepted his help and he pulled her up to stand. "Just… don't use the angel blade again."
"It can hurt you?"
"Angel blood, demon blood, human blood… let's see yes I am full of things that blade can kill so yeah it can hurt me too. Actually its one of the only things to ever leave a scar on my body."
He paused "on your forearm?"
"You saw?" she winced.
"I was the one who cut you there as an infant" he replied.
She blinked "oh, you meant the old scar…"
"There are new scars?"
Faythe sighed, figuring what the hell since Dean, Bobby and Sam had all seen her cut marks she removed her coat and showed Castiel her arm. He blinked at her, apparently not understanding. She saw the moment he clicked however and the serious worried look overtook his face. How strange that he should be worried. "Why?" he practically growled, a tone usually reserved for when something pissed him off.
"What?" Faythe gave him an irritated look "My mum had just died, I ran away to America, I was being hunted by angels and demons, I was thirteen and living on the streets and found out I'd just killed a dozen or so people that could've been saved if my mother hadn't been a demon blood addict and taught me exorcisms. I was in what you could call a bad place."
They paused for a moment, in which Faythe pulled on her coat again, and when she looked up she realised Castiel was smirking. "What?"
"You say you don't trust me yet you certainly act as though you do" he said sounding amused.
She threw him an irritated glare "don't get used to it feathers, tiredness can make people do stupid things. I'm going to catch a few hours' sleep in the backseat… can you stay out of trouble?" He glared at her now too, and Faythe couldn't help but smirk. "Goodnight, feathers."
"Goodnight Faythe."