Cas was awoken by violent shaking. He sat blot upright and rubbed his eyes, only to see the metal wall next to him rising and disappearing out of sight. The former angel marveled for a moment at the mechanical prowess and ingenuity of humans before a voice brought his attention back fully to his surroundings.
A burly man with no hair and a face as red as his handkerchief was shouting at him, his words laced with profanities and derogatory terms.
Castiel took the hint and gathered up his belongings attempting to quickly move from his refuge to another location, when his foot caught on the edge of the bench and he went sprawling over the ground his entire weight landing hard on not only the bag of potato chips that he clutched close to himself, but also his arm. He bit his tongue to seal in the yowl of pain that was trying to force it's way out of his throat, knowing that yelling at this moment in time would only make his situation worse.
He scooped himself up off of the ground and took the busted bag of chips with him, holding his injured arm to his chest.
Again his senses had been distracted from the whole of his surroundings. There was a cluster f people on the sidewalk, simply staring at him soe were whispering, one had pulled out a cell phone and was making a phone call. Castiel caught each and every pair of eyes as he felt his neck burn intensely, and the bottom of his empty stomach fall away. He heard the word police being muttered and he moved forward, rounding the building at a pace just shy of a sprint.
The former angel shivered and pulled his trench coat on tightly, trying to force away the tremors that were wracking his body.
He managed to get a few blocks away from the service station before he ducked into an ally and glanced down at his arm. He prodded it and poked at it, determining that it was not sprained or broken, merely bruised.
He also noticed, much to his delight, that the bag of chips was now open.
Castiel tilted back is head and poured the contents of the bag down his throat, coughing and choking, desperate for the nourishment and to regain the ability to breath. No sooner was that done did the former angel sank down against the cool tile walls of the alley and bury his head in his hands, his thoughts racing as he ran through his head of strategy and social conventions that would get him to the point of accomplishing his goals. The more he thought, however the more pain he seemed to build until all that filled his head was white notice and pressure.
So much pressure.
He gripped his head and curled up, trying desperately to will it away.
SPNSPNSPNSPN
Charlie was standing in front of the hospital doors, her gun drawn. Bony fingers gouging at the wood of the door, eerie moans echoing against the walls, in her head. She glanced over at the hospital bed beside hand saw her mother in her hospital bed, unmoving, unchanging, just as she had been all of these years. Suddenly the image of her other changed to that of a corpse, and the doors burst inwards, the zombies surging forward.
She opened fire, the tap tap tap of her gun jolting her awake.
She sat up, gasping for breath, her bangs pasted to her forehead with sweat, her heart racing. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself, but the tapping sound persisted. She glanced around and saw a face in her window.
An extremely attractive face.
That was waving at her?
Charlie mentally shook herself and unrolled her window. "Hello?"
The woman smiled and held out her hand. "First things first. I'm Nadia."
Charlie shook the hand she was offered slowly, still unsure of what exactly was going on, as if prompted by the confusion that was obviously written across Charlies face, the woman shook her head and stepped back from the car.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm a bit ahead of myself here. I was hiking this way and saw your car strand over here. I was just going to see if anyone was in it before I headed on."
Charlie smiled, finally waking u enough to catch on to what was going on. "Glad you did. Anyway, it's nice to meet you Nadia, I'm Charlie."
The other woman's smile grew slightly, before she pointed at the car. "What's your issue?"
Charlie sighed and ran her fingers through her tangled mess of hair. "Radiator leakage. I didn't have any water to coax it to town, so I'm stuck here."
Nadia turned to get into the backpack she was carrying, but stopped herself abruptly and held out her hand pleadingly to Charlie. "I promise I'm not getting a weapon, alright? Just some water."
Charlie rolled her eyes and stuck her arm out of the window, pointing at the car door. "Mind if I get out of the car?"
The woman eyed the genius suspiciously. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just need to stretch, I did spend the night in my car."
Nadia appeared to mull over the idea and nodded once more. "Fine. Just don't try anything unsavory."
Charlie laughed at that and stepped out of the car, completely forgetting about the gun strapped to her thigh.
Nadia took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "The gun?"
The genius looked down and blushed slightly, her cheeks burning. "Oh, sorry. You can never be to careful being a woman on the road."
That brought a chuckle from both of them, sheering through any residual tension.
"So Charlie." Nadia held up the water bottle and shook it. "I think we have enough to limp her to town."
The genius simply nodded and rounded the car, popping open the hood and sighing in dismay as she saw the wear and tear that her engine had suffered.
Nadya let out a low whistle when she stepped forward, her side brushing Charlie's. "This is more than a radiator."
The redhead could only nod and sigh, once more running her fingers through her hair.
The other woman gently patted her on the shoulder before unscrewing the radiator cap and pouring the contents of the container in. "There you are ma'am. I don't see anything else I can do. See if you can get it started"
Charlie smile and jogged back to the drivers side of the car, sliding in and cranking it up. She was relieved to hear it start up. despite the worrying rattle that sounded through the car.
The hood slammed down and Nadia walked back over to the drivers side window. "Alrighty, have a safe trip."
The red head frowned, her eyebrows furrowing to appear underneath her bangs. "Aren't you coming?"
Nadia's brown eyes widened in surprise, and a light blush touched her cheeks. "Er, no, I hadn't planned on it. Are you sure?"
Another nod. "Of course, its the least I can do."
The woman shook her head and walked around the back of the jeep, clambering into the passenger side while pushing the food wrappers and cd's into the floor. Charlie pulled onto the road when the car gave a groan. The genius stroked the dashboard softly and cooed at it. "It's okay baby, I'll get you help soon."
Nadia paused for a moment and simply stared at the woman in disbelief, before breaking into a fit of hysterical laughter.
Charlie blushed and attempted to keep her eyes on the road, but found them wandering over to glance at the wide smile that filled Nadya's face.
It was the fourth time that she glanced over that Nadia caught her, and held her gaze for a fraction ofa second, s small smile curling her lips. She turned to stare out of the passenger side window while Charlie focused back on the road, her neck burning with embarrassment.
They rode in silence until they pulled into the town, where Nadia sighed and pointed down the road. "There's a repair shop right there."
The woman nodded and pulled up in front of the garage. Nadia opened her door and hopped out, jogging over to a grease spattered mechanic that was sitting in a lawn chair beside a stack of tires.
Charlie watched the woman twirl her jet black hair and shuffle her boot clad feet. Talking the man up for what felt like ages. Finally the man jumped up and strutted to the car, his chest poking out a little bit with obvious pride at whatever he had said to her.
Nadia tapped once more on Charlie's window and waved for her to step out of the car, she obeyed, grabbing her satchel from behind her seat just in case.
The mechanic glanced her over, and then her counterpart, and has already wolfish grin grew, until his eyes the on the gun holstered to Charlies thigh.
She watched him swallow thickly and his eyes widen as he turned his full attention to the car. "Err umm, well, from what you've told me ma'am it will be about two days before I can get her up and running again. Maybe longer." Nadia frowned and stepped forward slightly, her eyes narrowing dangerously. Charlie instinctively placed a hand on her shoulder and the woman instantly relaxed, falling back behind her redheaded counterpart.
Charlie crossed her arms over her chest and took a more defensive stance, nearly leaning over the man before her. "Look. You have until 8 o'clock tomorrow evening to get that thing up to par. Understand me?"
The mechanic gulped and ran a stained hand over his complete bald head, a reflex, no doubt. "Yea, yea, I'll see what I can do."
The genius simply smiled and chuckled softly, the shift in her demeanor completely confusing the mechanic. "Now that that's settled, is their anyplace we can get a bite to eat?"
"Umm, Red's. Red's Diner. Two blocks down on your left. You can't miss it."
The woman nodded and turned to Nadia, who was practically grinning at the red head. "Ma'am, would you care to accompany me to breakfast?"
Nadia rolled her eyes. "Why I would be delighted."
Charlie stuck out her arm, and Nadia swatted it away with a laugh, bumping her shoulder into the other woman. "Plenty of time for that later. Let's get some food alright? I'm starving."
They walked down the street to the cafe, complete oblivious to the silent figure huddled in the alley that they passed.