Hi Everyone! Sorry it's been awhile- School's been a bit crazy lately. This chapter's a bit of a long filler chapter, but the story will pick up again soon, I promise! This chapter is mostly just bits and pieces from Abigail's childhood that will be important later on... As for the part about Abigail being able to see Cas in his grace, this is based off of what Cas said to Dean the first time they met about him thinking Dean might have been one of the few humans who could stand his true form. I've always wondered about that line, so here you go! Hope you like, and as always, reviews would be appreciated.

Castiel held the little girl in his arms, rocking her back and forth and murmering to her softly in Enochian. Peter and Karen often wondered how they were so lucky to get a baby girl who slept though the night most nights. In truth, Cas just was able to feel when the girl was about to cry, and was always there to comfort her until she fell asleep again. While in general Guardian Angels rarely spent time with the humans they protected, Castiel was the exception. He told himself that this was because Abigail was often hunted by angels and demons alike who wanted to either kill or kidnap her, and it was easier to just be there as often as possible. And while this was true, especially when she was younger, the real reason was Castiel just enjoyed being around the human girl. He had developed a bond with this girl stronger than any he had ever felt before. Gabriel told him this was normal- as her Guardian Angel he would feel a certain profound bond with his charge, especially as she was his first. He cared for the girl more than he had cared for anyone before- including his brothers and sisters up in heaven- and wanted to protect her against everything, whether this was the demons who were hunting her, or just the nightmares that already plauged the young prophet.

Tonight he held her close after she woke up from one of these nightmares. Although she couldn't even speak yet, Abigail was already recieving visions of the future in her dreams. When this would happen, Castiel would hold her tight and speak softly to her in Enochian, willing her to relax, as he did tonight. Hush... The angel whispered as the little girl cried softly. "It's alright. I've got you. Castiel's got you. You're safe. I'll keep you safe."

"Ca-te-el". The little girl bubbled, her stormy grey eyes meeting the angel's blue ones. Castiel couldn't help but smile. Her first word was a distorted version of his name! For some reason, this made the angel very happy. He wrapped his wings around himself and the baby, grateful that she was one of the very few humans who could stand to see him in his grace, although not quite his true form. It just meant he didn't need to take a vessel everytime he wanted to visit her, which, he thought, was quite convienent. "Ca-te-el." The girl mummbled again, drifting off to sleep in the arms of her angel.

...

Six year old Abigail Fordyce sat on her bed, waiting. Castiel hadn't been to visit the night before, and she was impatient to show him her surprise. While Castiel didn't visit every single night now that Abigail was a bit older and in less danger from attacks, it was rare that he went two nights without visiting the girl. Abigail glanced at her clock, which now read 9:07. If her parents knew she was up this late, they would be mad. But she heard them go to bed shortly after putting Claire and the twins to bed in the room next to hers. Claire often complained about how it was unfair that Abigail got her own room while she had to share, but her parents didn't change anything, which made Abigail happy. Castiel had told her that he couldn't come see her when there were other people in her room, as they couldn't see him like she did, and Abigail didn't want to have to stop seeing Cas, as she called him when she spoke to him in English. This used to upset the little girl, who wanted Cas to meet her friends and Claire. However, as they got older and her sister and friends had began making fun of her when they found out about her "imaginary friend", she stopped wanting them to meet him anyways.

Abigail glanced back at the clock, yawning. Where was Castiel? Then suddenly she heard a faint sound of wings behind her and she bouced off the bed. "Cath!" she cried softly, running over to hug the angel. As she pulled back she smiled, showing Cas the gap in her mouth where her front two teeth had fallen out.

Castiel was happy to see the little girl so excited, although he was confused about how this excitement was caused by knocking out one's teeth. "Did you get into a fight at school?" Castiel asked in English, cocking his head slightly to the side. He has copied this gesture from Abigail- it was something she did often when she was confused.

Abigail laughed, being careful to stay quiet, as not to wake her parents or her siblings. "No thilly. They fell out. Mommy thays teeth do that, and that they'll grow back thoon" Abigail always liked teaching Cas new things about humans. It made her feel important to teach an angel something new.

Castiel just nodded, filing the information away for future use. "I see. Well, if they are going to grow back, I guess that is okay."

Abigail gave him another smile, switching into Enochian. "It makes speaking Enochian really hard." Castiel laughed to hear her stumble though the sounds in his native language. Castiel had taught Abigail Enochian as she grew up, making her as fluent as she was in English. It was nice to be able to converse in his own language with the girl, and he figured it would be helpful to her as a prophet. Most prophets got massive headaches when prophacies came to them, as they could not understand the language of the angels and instead had to be shown what was going to happen, usually through dreams. Abigail was different- she still got migranes when the angels spoke loudly, but usually she was able to understand their whispers and speak back to them with minimal amounts of pain. However, with her newfound lisp Abigail's Enochian sounded stuttery and silly.

"That's okay," Castiel said, also switching into Enochian. "When they grow back, you'll sound better than the angels." He picked the little girl up and put her back down on her bed. "Sleep now Abigail. You have school in the morning." Abigail climbed under the covers and smiled at Castiel. She liked when he watched her go to sleep- it made her feel safe, knowing he was there to protect her.

...

Thirteen year old Abigail swung around, kicking Castiel behind his knee, causing him to buckle to the floor. He in turn grabbed her foot and twisted, sending her tumbling to the ground. She tried to roll away from him, but he pounced on top of the younger girl, pinning her arms to the ground. "I win again." He laughed, breathing heavily. Slowly he climbed off the girl and helped her up, checking her over for any major injuries. Castiel had started teaching Abigail to fight when she was four, stating that she ought to know how to defend herself, as Peter clearly had no intention of doing so. In truth, Cas wanted to make sure that Abigail would be ready to fight off the monsters that came after her, just in case he couldn't be there to do it for her. Cas had taught Abigail how to fight hand to hand, with a blade, and how to shoot a gun by the time she was 9, and soon he and she were sparring with each other. Being an angel of Heaven with milennia of expierence and far more strength than the teenager, Cas won most of these matches. However, Abigail could occasionally outsmart him and gain the upper hand. Cas had no doubt that she could defend herself against any human- she was strong and smart and kept her head in a fight.

Because they had to remain a secret from her family, Abigail's lessons often took place at night, well away from where she lived. Castiel usually popped her over to an old abandoned building a few states over, so even if they were heard, no one would suspect anything. Castiel had also began to teach her about demons and ghosts and other supernatural creatures as she got older, as well as how to kill them. On her twelfth birthday, she had killed her first vampire,with Castiel's help of course. She would never go hunting for these creatures, but at least now she didn't have to rely on Castiel to kill them for her when they came after her. Castiel required her to keep a bottle of holy water, a lighter, salt, and both a silver and iron knife on her at all times. This usually wasn't a problem, except during the warmer months where she wanted to wear shorts. But she had figured out how to conceal a knife.

"How's the demon trap going?" Cas asked, slipping back into Enochian. Abigail walked over to her backpack and pulled out a notebook. After flipping through a few pages of algebra she stopped on a large demon trap that took up the entire page. She handed it to Castiel and then looked over his shoulder as he looked over the runes, making sure everything was in the right place. "You know, my teacher caught me drawing this during class today. I told her it was just a symbol I found on a coin, but I bet that I end up being called to the guidance counselor tomorrow to 'talk about my feelings' " Castiel turned around to look at her, tilting his head to the side in confusion. As she got older, Abigail began using more and more sarcasm in her English, causing Castiel to miss more and more of what she meant. Sighing, she switched into Enochian, which, having no concept of sarcasm, she used a lot more literally. "She's going to want me to explain why I am drawing satanic symols on my math homework."

"Because you really hate math?" Castiel replied, attempting a joke and being rewarded with a small chuckle from Abigail. "It looks good." He said, handing her back the notebook. She reached to grab it when suddenly she collasped on the floor, her hands pressed against her head.

"Abigail!" Castiel cried out. He put his arms around her and then wrapped his wings around the both of them. As she had gotten older, Abigail's visions had been comming more and more frequently. Whereas before she would maybe get 1 a month, now they were comming more like one every two weeks. This one however seemed particularly bad- usually they were just whispers that she could hear. Not many produced full-on migranes.

After what seemed like an eternity, the headache subsided and Abigail fell against Castiel in a shaking heap. "Hush, it's okay." He whispered to her, stroking her hair. "It's okay. I'm here. I've got you. You're safe. I've got you." Finally she was able to stop shaking and look him in the eye.

"Castiel, it was horrible. There was this man, and he was lying on a bed when suddenly this girl was lying on the ceiling and blood was dripping out of her stomach... Then she just burned..." Cas just patted her on the back as she cried. As much as he did to protect her, he couldn't protect her from this- these nightmarish visions of things to come. He couldn't even shield her from the pain, just hold her as she cried, knowing that sooner or later, all those visions would come to pass.

...

Almost-Eighteen year old Abigail sat on her bed, knees pulled to her chest, waiting for Castiel. It had been a hard week, between almost getting caught with a knife on school grounds to her parents forcing her to skip going out with her friends to watch her siblings to accidentally shouting at the most popular girl in school about how much of a jerk she was in Enochian, causing people to whisper as she walked by. Then, on top of all that, she had been hit by another prophacy at school today. It hadn't been a bad one, but the fact that it had happened at school had frightened her. The prophacies were comming nearly once a week now, and no longer were they restricted to only being at nighttime. Just what she needed on top of friends, college apps, and senior year homework- and it was only the first week of school! When it had happened, she had run to the bathroom, telling her teacher she felt like she was going to be sick, which wasn't exactly a lie. There, Cas had appeared and had calmed her down before telling her he had to go and would talk to her later. She had gone home, claiming to be sick. Now it was nearly 10 pm and she was still waiting for Castiel.

Suddenly she heard the familiar sound of wings and turned to see Castiel. He looked tired, more tired than she had ever seen her Guardian Angel before. "Castiel..." She began, taking a step towards him, but Cas cut her off.

"Abigail, I have to go away for awhile. It might be a long while." Abigail froze in place. Castiel had never left her alone for more than a day or two, and even then she knew he would always come if she called him. Seeing the look on her face, Castiel held up his hands. "Please understand, I don't want to leave you. Especially not right now, with your prophacies becoming worse. But I have no choice. Heaven has a job for me, and I can't refuse. Please try to understand." Abigail just nodded. She understood that Castiel was an angel, and that he had other things to do than watch over her. It was just hard not to think of him as abandoning her when she needed him the most. Castiel was supposed to never abandon her.

Castiel came over to where she was standing and pulled her into an awkward hug. When he released her he pulled out a long box. "What is this?" Asked Abigail, taking the box in her hands.

"Well, your birthday is in a few days, and I know it is customary to give people gifts, especially when they reach adulthood." Abigail smiled. She had taught Cas about that one a few years back, and ever since he had given her a flower crown or some similarly small on her birthday, August 30th. She opened the box, expecting something along the same lines, and gasped. Instead, lying in the box was an angel's blade. Castiel smiled and Abigail gave him another hug.

"Thank You Castiel." She said. She turned the blade over in her hands, admiring the shine and sharpness. The two of them sat there for a moment before Abigail spoke up again. "So where are you being sent on this mission?" She asked solomly.

"Hell." Castiel replied. Had it been anyone else, Abigail would have laughed. But she knew that this was Cas and he was 100% serious. "I should only be gone a month at most. In the meantime, my brother, Gabriel, will be watching out for you." Abigail just nodded, twirling her angel blade. Cas stood up to leave when Abigail grabbed his wrist.

"Castiel..." She whispered. He turned to face her, his head tilting slightly in confusion. "Please stay... Just until I fall asleep..."

Castiel smiled and nodded as the girl climbed into bed and turned out the lights. "Of course Abigail," he whispered.