Short chapter, almost filler, but starting to get into the storyline I've been meaning to. So, yeah, summary says Castiel x OC, but I feel like anything else I've ever written was very hasty romance that looking back on now, was kind of a bad idea. People don't fall in love in days… if they did then you're lucky. Congrats, you. Here's a fresh pie. Expect this romance to be ever slow burning, because that's the way it happens in real life. Plus, Castiel is an angel, I don't think he knows what love is, also I think human lovers are against one of those law things. Shrug.
Bell woke up only hours later to the smell of breakfast cooking. She almost screamed as a side effect of the nightmare she had; the ghost of Linda was still trying to drown her. Of course the medium Linda had to use was a dream, so now Bell felt frightened to even go back to sleep again.
A knock on the door brought Bell back to Earth. "You awake?" It was Dean.
"Yeah, I'm up, just a second."
"Breakfast is ready. Sammy's ready for your quiz."
Bell heard Dean shuffle away. Sounded like he was wearing slippers. Bell sighed and sat up and hugged her legs tightly. I didn't call dad last night. I really didn't want to, though. He'd try to guilt me into going home.
Next to her bed was a sound of material waving against itself. When Bell looked over she saw Castiel faced away from her.
"Can I help you?"
"I was thinking about something you said last night, and I waited for you to get up. Is it okay for me to turn around?"
Bell looked herself over and pulled the blanket up to her chin. "I'm decent if that's what you're asking."
Castiel turned slowly to Bell with a confused look. "Do you hurt right now?"
"I feel pretty fine, why?"
"When you told me being a human hurts, I because curious. I wanted to know what exactly hurt."
Bell raised her brows and exhaled deeply. "Our emotions hurt us. Physical damage hurts; it all depends on what has happened to us."
"It's not always physical?" Castiel kneeled down to her bed and sat on the edge.
"Mm. No. Do you not have these talks with Sam or Dean?"
Castiel looked down at his hands in his lap. "Sam doesn't seem to like to talk to me, and Dean is always a smartass."
Bell laughed. "I can't always give you answers. And next time? Try knocking on the door, okay?"
"Oh, yes. Humans do that, too."
Bell shook her head as Castiel left. An angel. Angels are walking the Earth, it seems. She was living proof ghosts haunt the breathing. She didn't know how she felt about the demons…
Her feet touched the cool ground, and after wiggling her toes around she pulled a new set of clothes out to wear for the day. She changed into a pair of black shorts that ended at her knees, and a white tank top. She brushed through her long hair and decided herself presentable to the day's wonders.
Sam looked up from the table as Bell came in. "Hey. How'd you sleep?"
"Good enough," she answered. "I had a nightmare about yesterday? Day before? I've lost track of time from not seeing the sun for so long."
"Side effect from livin' in here," Dean told her as he entered the room with plates full of food. "I like this cookin' bit. I just love cookin' in general."
"I'm not arguing you there," Sam laughed and started to fill his plate. "So, how far did you get in the book last night, Bell?"
"I, uh, read the whole first book."
"Really?" Dean said in disbelief.
"Nice," Sam said between bites. "Are you ready to be tested?"
"And know that if you fail so much as one question, its back home to Ohio with you," Dean added. It almost sounded like a threat. Bell watched him sit down with a shocked expression.
"You have to give me more of a leeway than that. That's insanity, and you weren't perfect at this when you started, were you?"
Dean pointed a fork at her, "We just happened to be born into this."
Bell huffed and leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms. "What's the first question, then?"
"Woman in White case? Okay, let me think…" Sam tapped his fingers on the table as he dug through the archives of his brain for information to quiz her on. There was only so much that was noted in the book that could literally be tested on, and so far it wasn't much.
"What was the Woman in White's real name?"
Bell looked to the side as if she were trying to look directly at her brain. "Constance?" Sam twisted his hand in a 'carry on' motion. "Welsh? No! Welch!"
Dean nodded. "Okay. What's a salt ring for?"
"Anything inside a salt ring is protected from ghosts' and demons' entry."
It was Sam's turn to nod. "What is a hunter's journal?"
Bell narrowed her eyes and unfolded her arms. Her hands landed in her lap. "A documentation of monsters, demons, ghosts, cases and helpful notes that a hunter could use or had used. In your father's case it was his diary."
"And how did Constance lure people into her trap?" Dean fired off instantly.
"She'd hitchhike on the side of the road, asking people to go home with her."
"And where was Dad's journal in his hotel room?" Sam tried.
Bell tilted her head to the right, squinted her eyes and pursed her lips. "It wasn't in your father's hotel room. And it wasn't even a hotel, it was a motel. Your father's journal was in the possession of the police. Dean got it back when he was arrested."
Sam and Dean exchanged impressed glances. Trick questions don't faze her.
"How do you kill a ghost?" Sam leaned forward, his ribs pressing against the edge of the table.
"Constance? Or in general?"
"Let's say both," Dean concluded.
"You salted the bones of Linda Kaufman and burned them in my case. That took away her ties to this world. In the case of the Woman in White, you ended up with her coming to realization of her children's death. You resolved her issues she couldn't do while living. She accepted death and passed on."
Sam nodded in approval. "Alright, so far we can say you have the ability to pay attention to detail."
Bell narrowed her eyes at Sam, wondering if he was being serious or sarcastic. Dean apparently had the same thought as he looked to his brother, too.
"That was totally my line," Dean said and in turn earned a shake of Sam's head.
The rest of breakfast went silently, Castiel wandered through a few times, telling everyone he was amazed at the fact he could still find new rooms to explore each time he turned down a hall. Sam gathered dishes up and took them to the kitchen. Dean took over responsibility of Bell then.
"I'm gonna take you to the shooting range and test your shootin' skills," he told her as he lead the way.
"I've never touched a real gun before."
"Here you go," Dean said as he pulled one out from the back of his pants and threw it over his shoulder at Bell.
Bell screeched as she tried to catch it and fumbled it in her hands. "Dean! What are you, fucking crazy?!"
Dean smiled to himself. "It's not loaded, think I'd really make that kind of mistake?"
Bell glared at the back of his head as they entered the range. She watched the room light up and noticed at least six different windows from which trainees could shoot from. Each window had targets at least twenty feet away, and then the room seemed to extend further back. The targets were movable to different lengths to train for. The wall behind the windows had a larger window that showed a room resembling an office. Bell thought it could have been where a secretary would spend days issuing weapons out to the people that needed them, but this seemed like too much of a secret base to really have that many members…
Dean took the gun back from Bell. "I'm going to show you how to load it, aim it, fire it, and hopefully you'll be good at it."
"And if I'm not?"
"You're going back home to Ohio, all expenses paid," Dean tried to sound like a game show announcer, but his sarcasm really shined through.
"Then, if I'm good?" Bell wondered if he would try to deviate away from what she overheard in the car.
Dean finished loading a clip and set it on the table before them. "Then, we'll see."
Bell huffed and pressed her palms on the table. "What first, teach?"
"I loaded the clip for you. This is a .45 caliber Colt 1911. My favorite," he said with a grin. "It can hold a full magazine and one in the chamber. It's a good gun to have when hunting, even for defense in some cases. Anyway, this is how it's loaded," he shoved the magazine into the gun, cocked it, disengaged the safety and shot at the target in front of them. It hit the dead center of the head of the man outlined. "Easy, right?"
"Yeah, sure," Bell said with uncertainty as he took the gun back apart and sat it before her. Dean stepped back and watched with a careful eye. She grabbed the magazine and pressed down on the bullets. They sprung back at the absence of her touch. "Should I reload it?"
"It's fine. Go for it, quit stalling," Dean motioned to the gun with his hand.
Bell fumbled with the magazine and pushed it into the gun, listening for it to click in place.
"Why did you want to come with us?" Dean asked all of a sudden. Bell turned to him, but he scolded her for it. "Keep focused!"
Bell turned back to the gun. She cocked it and held it out in her right hand, left hand bracing her balance. She took her time in aiming and took the shot; it hit the outline's shoulder.
"Keep going!" Dean barked.
Bell took each shot while holding the gun in the same stance she started in. Every bullet was only inches away from her first shot. Smoke rose out of the end of the barrel. Bell sat the gun down as she listened to the ringing silence. "I don't know. Maybe coming along would have helped me shed some light on my original family… or something of the sort. I did research; my family is… I just can't… I don't want to talk about it. I just want to know what really happened… and becoming a hunter sounded so neat… I don't have a proper answer for you. I just don't."
Dean stared at her with narrowed eyes. What the hell did we get ourselves into with her?
-x-
Sam kept up with the quizzing questions, Dean kept pushing weapons training on her (not training, more like HEY CAN YOU USE THIS DO IT NOW), and at some points Bell could see Castiel wander around in the corners of her eye. In the downtime, she read more books, in turn gaining more tests from Sam… a never-ending cycle. Bell was exhausted, strained, and almost sick of it all, but she studied hard to appeal to Sam and focused even harder on the weapons to prove to Dean she wasn't just a girl.
Bell sighed as she sat down the forth book on the table. It was way past time for rest, and her mind was still racing. She didn't know if she wanted to sleep or not, but then again, the boys were talking about a possible hunt tomorrow. She was also under the impression they don't want her to go.
"You're up late, again," Castiel said to her.
Bell looked up at him as he stood in front of her across the table. "You are, too."
"I don't sleep—"
"I know," Bell interrupted him. That seems almost… unbearable. Do you ever just sit still?" Bell gathered up the books and tossed them into the box they came from haphazardly.
"I have no reason to rest at all," Castiel told her.
"I'm sorry," she said slightly sympathetically.
Castiel squinted his eyes at her and tilted his head to the side. "What have you done to be sorry for?"
"You really need to work on your human slang, figures of speech," Bell said with a tone of annoyance, then took the box in her hands and retreated to her room.
Castiel was left pondering what it was he did that will require his apology later.
It wasn't that he did anything wrong, I probably shouldn't have been rude, Bell thought. It's hard to talk to someone that you have to explain each and every gimmick to. It makes me wonder how long the Angel has been with the Winchesters, and how long I have with them…
In the safety of the room she sleeps in, she froze right inside the door. "I held a gun today. I really don't want to go. I want to stay. But, Dean doesn't seem to want me to stay… What do I do?"
Bell lay in the bed and pulled the covers over her head. Castiel spied from behind the doorway. He then disappeared silently and went to where the brothers were awake and speaking with each other in Dean's room, invisible.
"You have to admit, she's gotten pretty good," Sam told Dean. "She knows all the tricks by now, she has us to teach her—that's pretty freakin' sweet if I do say so myself. We didn't have anyone to teach us, just Dad's journal. And I think it's just about maxed out."
"She's good at shootin' a gun too," Dean sighed. "I don't know how I feel about her staying, Sammy. It's always been me and you, and anyone else that ever got close to us has either died, or worse."
"Cas is still here," Sam pointed out.
"Yeah, and he's also an angel."
Sam agreed internally. "Garth is okay. Everyone that hasn't been okay was because we left them unattended too soon. I feel responsible for that, and I hate it."
"I don't know, Sam. Can we talk about it tomorrow? I'm tired."
"Yeah," Sam said, rising off of Dean's bed. "We can."
Dean watched his brother leave without saying good night, and he knew he upset him. He knew Sam felt responsible for each death of their friends so far, and he didn't want Bell to be another casualty. If she was, it would go on him. His conscious was already cracking and falling through the free spaces in his hands.
Sam was happy with Bell's interest and ability to learn so quickly, but he knew once she were to actually apply herself that she would show her true progress. Was tomorrow too soon? It seemed like an easy case that he and Dean had found. Either way, he wanted to know, and wanted to know now.
Castiel had almost the same thoughts, but this was almost unlike Dean to not want to help out a woman. Dean loved women. And pie. Maybe he should tell Bell to make Dean a pie, maybe then she could stay? Castiel knew Bell wanted to stay so badly, and he could sympathize with that fact. That's what he was doing right now… for now. He probably couldn't stay much longer. He only came by to hideout and recuperate for the time being… He had his own mission to tend to. He couldn't let the brothers know, though. If they did, they'd probably kill him instead.