The guys discussed the situation for another hour after Abigail had closed the door to her bedroom, but they didn't come much closer to figuring out why Abigail was of both angelic and demonic interest. The only thing they could all agree on was that they still needed more answers which they were only able to get until the next day.
"So.. I guess there's nothing else to do but bunk down. Who gets the bed?" Dean adjourned their meeting and stood up. He grabbed the empty bottles on the table and moved them next to the kitchen sink.
"Rock, paper, scissors?" Sam asked unsurely, afraid is proposal was too childish.
Dean hesitated for a moment before he gave in, "Why not.. get up Cas."
Castiel had received Dean's orders in the middle of a wide yawn, a bodily reaction he found strange, but he didn't get a chance to linger long in his private moment of self amazement. He stood up and moved away from the table ready to engage in whatever plan his buddies had in mind. He had no idea what made them think they were gonna need rocks, paper, and scissors to make a decision. The brothers gathered next to him while reaching out their knotted fists towards each other. When Castiel didn't react to their odd posture they both kept staring anticipating at him expecting him to mirror their actions. But still nothing happened, Castiel just starred at their hands like he was expecting a sudden movement.
"What?" Castiel finally asked when his level of confusion had reached its limit and his eyes shifted from one brother to the other waiting for one of them to give him a proper explanation.
"You don't know how to play 'rock, paper, scissors'?" Sam asked and lowered his fist, and again both brothers realized they had overestimated his human skills.
"No? And weren't we gonna decide who was going to sleep where?" he asked and frowned while looking up at Sam.
"This is deciding. Now get your fist in here and I'll explain. This means 'rock'." Dean help up his fist and shook it, "And this is paper.." Dean unfolded his hand and was about to continue explaining when Castiel stated, "But.. it's your hand.. and I see no rock." Dean kept staring at Castiel keeping the posture like he'd been frozen when Castiel interrupted him. Sam knew that stare too well. His brother was gonna lose it if he didn't save the situation.
After Sam explained the rules down to every detail Castiel finally felt prepared to attend the 'Strange decision-making game of hand gestures'. Despite of being a newbie Castiel won the honor of sleeping in Abigail's brother's bed, which only added to Dean's annoyance.
Castiel went into Alex' room to claim his price of the night. He took off his loaned pants and t-shirt and crawled under the covers. He had to admit the bed was very comfortable, and while lying there on his back it hit him – he'd never slept before. His realization raised a lineup of questions like; how do you fall asleep? How do you wake up again?
He'd watched Dean sleep a couple of times, but he never paid much attention to how he did it. He usually just lied down and closed his eyes and he wouldn't hear from him until he woke up. His puzzled mind kept him awake nonetheless, so he finally decided to jump out of bed and went back in to the living room. Both brothers were sleeping and Castiel found himself envying their talents.
He stopped by the couch Dean was occupying and poked his shoulder. The first reaction he got was a deep grunt.
"Dean…? Dean…? I have a question." Quickly Dean's eyes shut open and he sat up like shot from a canon. His gun had been lying on the coffee table next to him and on his way up he'd grabbed it and now pointed it at Castiel.
"Cas?! What the hell are you doing, you're supposed to sleep!" Dean growled when he realized who woke him up.
"I know. But…" he was a little embarrassed to admit his failure to a task that to humans seemed so easy.
"But what?" Dean put down the gun and stood up.
"I'm not sure.. how.." Dean's eyes widened. Was he for real? But of course, angels never slept.
"Do you feel tired?" he asked and started to feel slightly sorry for Cas.
"I am not sure. How does it feel?" Dean started to worry about how much him and Sam was going to explain to their fallen angel before he adjusted to humanity. It was easier when he still had his grace and didn't need to understand everything.
"Like.. like.. your eyelids get heavy? You…" Dean took a moment to rub his forehead while considering his next example, yet due to his own tiredness he gave up. "Oh forget it, I caught you yawning earlier, I know you're tired! Go back to your room, lay down, and closed your eyes!" he ordered, feeling like a father asking his kid to go back to sleep.
"Is that all it? I just close my eyes? How do I wake up?" Castiel asked, still feeling skeptical. It sounded too simple for him.
"That is it! I'm not gonna tuck you in and read you a bedtime story! You wake up when you've rested enough, okay?" Castiel felt like asking Dean about the bedtime story and why he brought it up, but the look in Dean's angry, green eyes told him no he wasn't in the mood for answering.
"Okay. I will get back to it. Thank you Dean."
"You're welcome." Dean was already getting comfortable on the couch and Castiel took a moment to watch his actions making sure Dean didn't rule out some crucial tips. Dean became aware of being watched and sent an annoyed glare Castiel's way and asked, "What now?!"
"Nothing, I'll go now." Castiel turned around and started wandering back to Alex' room while he heard Dean mumble a few swear words. If he still had his grace he would be able to distinguish every single word, but now as a human a lot of noises escaped his attention. It was somehow calming, but also filled him with wariness and uncertainty.
Once again he climbed under the covers and laid down on his back. His skin quickly absorbed the warmness of the fabric and sent a soothing feeling through his body and helped him relax. He followed Dean's instructions and closed his eyes. Peculiarly enough, Castiel felt his breathing frequency decrease and the room became very distant.
Abby's POV:
I quickly sat up in my bed the minute my eyes opened and I realized I was awake. Had it been a dream? Was it real?! I almost stumbled when I threw myself out of my bed and my feet got tangled up in the fabric of the pants of my pajamas. I opened the door to the hallway discovering the huge vase my umbrella used to be in was gone.
"Nonono…" I whispered to myself. The smell of soap and chemicals met my nostrils revealing the fact the floors had recently been cleaned.
I slowly continued my road down real life memory lane into the living room. The sofas were empty besides from the curled up blankets. The sound of fingers tabbing on a computer keyboard caught my attention. I continued out in the kitchen where I found Sam sitting by his computer. His eyes were on me the minute I walked into the room.
"Hi." He said, like he didn't really know what else to say. Frankly, I was a bit lost for words too. I thought a good night sleep would prepare me for whatever this day would bring, but I found myself mistaken – big time.
"Morning." I responded while taking another glance around the room. "Where's your brother and Castiel?"
My question seemed to loosen up the tension building up between Sam and I. I felt utterly awkward standing in my pajamas in front of a stranger. I wasn't used to be seen by men in my nightly uniform.
"Cas is still sleeping and Dean went to get us breakfast. He'll be back anytime now." He was watching my every move, maybe to look for any signs of me loosing it. Ever since Dean and Sam were told that Metatron had been trying to contact me they'd been looking at me with different, suspicious eyes.
"Oh.. should we let him sleep in? It's only 7:30." I asked him while looking up at the wall clock.
"Yeah. Dean told me it was his first time sleeping." His brows jump up and down shortly, showing he found the information weird, and turned towards the screen again.
"No kidding? The guy never slept?" I went to the cabinet and found a bag of grained coffee and started preparing the coffee maker.
"Nope. Apparently Dean had to teach him how to fall asleep last night." He spoke of the incident like it had been a bore, but seeing the whole scene before me in my mind I couldn't help myself but smile. I didn't know why and my reaction startled me a little. I quickly paid more attention to the task at hand and started filling water into the coffee maker.
"Original, isn't he?" having my back towards Sam I felt his gaze on me and his tabbing on the computer stopped again. I turned around while leaning my back against the kitchen counter to meet his reaction to my statement.
"Yeah, he is. Most angels are though." He said like it was no big deal and shrugged. They'd met others like him?
"Oh.. okay.." I didn't feel ready to have the full speech about angels and their behavior and chose to leave the mental storage I'd gained over night for whatever weird conversations I was gonna attend later today. Choose your battles, right? A good idea would be only to focus on the ex-angel sleeping in my brother's bed.
I placed 4 mugs on the table. The coffee maker started grunting while the water ran through the filter. It was such a calm sound which I enjoyed every morning. Sam didn't seem like he cherished the sounds as much as I did, his eyes were plastered to the screen while he was scrolling up and down on a webpage unknown to me.
"So where did you guys meet? I suppose you don't just stumble upon an angel randomly at on the street." First Sam didn't release his gaze from the lap top so I quickly added, "Sorry, you're busy.. I just.."
He looked up at me not showing any signs of annoyance of me interrupting him again, "No, it's fine. I'm just doing some research on the city." He ran this hand through his long hair and sighed deeply while leaning back against the back of the chair.
"Found anything interesting?" Oh right, the research.
"No, nothing suspicious, not even a single clue." He stated sounding a bit disappointed.
"Dull city, huh?" I somehow felt like I had to excuse for my city's lack of clues.
"I'd say lucky.. just not for us. But you were asking about something?" he closed the lid on his lap top serving me his full attention.
"Yeah.. I…" there was a knock on my front door. The sound ripped me out of my soothing trip caused to my coffee maker's singing. Was I really gonna feel this paranoid every time someone came knocking on my door? I tried to hide my bewilderment from Sam which luckily seemed to work, "I better get that. Like you said, it's probably Dean with breakfast." I quickly turned on my heel and hurried towards the door. I granted myself the luxury of breathing deeply while gathering the courage to open the door.
It was time to face the fear.
I opened the door slowly to meet a pair of confused, green eyes, "What's up with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." Dean was holding two paper bags in one hand and several news papers in the other. His eyes quickly scanned my body, and again I became really aware of the fact I was still wearing my pajamas.
"How can I be sure you're not… you know.." I took the liberty of making sure of not letting anything rotten inside my apartment again. Dean gave me the 'oh come on!' look before he looked down and pointed on the floor with the hand with the bags in and said, "You see that?"
I hadn't noticed before, but right there on the doorstep was a line of white powder, "What the hell.. what is that?" I took a step back.
"Take it easy, it's rock salt. Keeps demons out. Which means, if I was a demon I wouldn't be able to do this." He took a large step and placed his foot on the other side of the doorstep. He closed the door behind him and left me in the hallway still trying to make sense of what just happened.
Seriously? Salt? I just cleaned the floors.
I shook my head and went back into the kitchen. Dean was already pouring himself a cup of coffee and Sam was taking a look at the headlines of the news papers his brother brought home.
"Where's Cas?" Dean asked.
"Still asleep." Sam didn't look away from the news papers.
"Not for long. We need to get to work." He took a sip of his coffee before he stormed off to Alex's room.
Speaking of… Alex was probably awake by now.
Before I fell asleep yesterday I had made an emergency plan IF last night's events were real. As much as it hurt, I was gonna come up with a suggestion that would seem to be in the favor of both of us. The sooner I discussed it with him, the better.
"Uhm.. I need to make a phone call." I actually doubted Sam heard me because he didn't say anything, so I quickly went to my room and closed the door behind me. I grabbed my phone from the night stand and dialed my brother's number. It rang two times before he picked up.
"Hi Abby. What's up?" there was a lot of noise in the background and it sounded much like he was standing in the middle of a crowded hallway.
"Morning, how are you? Excited about first day of school?" I tried to sound as casual as possible. Maybe the noise around him was gonna play out to be an advantage for me since I was the worst liar. I'd never had to lie to my brother before and it was tearing up my soul, if such one existed, that I had to do it now. I supported my actions by telling myself it was for his own good – maybe a life or death situation.
"For the hundred time, yes, I am excited and probably gonna be late if you don't cut to the chase." He was panting and I could hear his heavy footsteps.
"Don't worry, it won't be long. I just.. have a plan. You know how hard it was for me to send you away, so.. what do you think about a cold turkey?" I heard him stop.
"Did you just refer to me as a drug addiction, or are you offering me raw poultry? You really are losing it, aren't you?" he sounded genuinely worried for me and I feared he was gonna insist on coming back.
"Okay that came out wrong. But seriously, I'm trying to deal with this.. you, growing up and going away for college. Maybe… if we agree on no phone calls or text messages for… like a week? Emergency calls are allowed, of course." Alex was still standing still and there was a short moment of silence before he answered.
"It's.. fine by me. I mean, it's not like I don't want you to call me once in a while, but.. if this is what you need?" He started walking again, but slower than before.
"I think it is. I think you need to prove to me that you're gonna be okay, and right now this is the best way.. I think."
"Alright.. well.. then I'll call you in a week?" I couldn't believe what I'd just done, it was totally against my nature to agree on this. But it was too late to back off, he would probably get suspicious if he wasn't already.
"Not if I call you first. Take care, Popsicle." I heard him scoffing before he hung up. I knew that even though no one could hear me I had embarrassed him in public by calling him by his nickname.
I put the phone down and quickly changed into something else that my PJ's. My hair seriously needed attention too, even though I wasn't that into my own looks. My coworker Julia found it very irritating and she constantly begged me to doll up with her and have a 'girl's night out'. "It would be good for you!" she said, but she had no valid arguments to support her statement. So I made a deal with her – whenever she found a proper argument, I would "be her bitch for a whole evening" as she so formally put it.
Julia was like my total opposite. She was fair haired, always dressed in clothes she couldn't afford, always behind with her bills, calling in sick and was later spotted at the mall the same day. Sometimes she even had two boyfriends at the same time since she found it 'impossible to choose' because one of the guys possessed the qualities the other guy lacked, and vice versa. Of course, she was caught in the act every time and ended up alone and a few months later she'd be in the same situation. And yet, she was the only female I considered a friend. She was always happy, always buying the people she cared for small witty things and not expecting anything in return except of a sign of gratitude. She was a free spirit and nothing would knock her out.
When I came back to the kitchen all the guys were sitting around the dinner table eating their breakfast. Castiel looked very content and was eagerly explaining something to Dean who was listening with a crooked brown looking not at all interested in whatever Cas was talking about. Sam was actually paying attention to the conversation and had stopped reading the news paper, so I figured he found it more interesting than Dean since he stopped his 'research' to hear what Cas had to say.
"It was a very extraordinary experience." Castiel had just ended his tale when I grabbed myself a mug and poured me a cup of coffee at kitchen counter.
"Of course you'd think so." Dean stated with a slight hint of disgust in his voice.
"Morning. Did you sleep well?" I greeted Castiel and sat down in front of him by the table.
"I did. Thank you for letting me sleep in your brother's room. I feel like… a new person." His wide smile looked almost psychotic and I had doubts that I would want to know what he had told Dean just before I got back to the kitchen, because I assumed he just had been let in on the reason for that happy face.
"He had his first dream." Sam explained with a smirk. Obviously he found the story funnier than Dean did.
"Oh? Do I wanna know about what?" my eyes shifted from Winchester to Winchester and stopped at Dean when he said, "Only if you're into nudity and kittens… combined. Which I highly doubt, so let's get to business."
My eyes quickly fell on Castiel who didn't at all seem ashamed of himself. He was calmly listening to Dean and Sam while eating a peanut butter sandwich, looking like he was in 7th Heaven. Nudity and kittens – how was it even possible that the guy across me was an angel?
I forcefully pulled myself out of my thoughts and tried to pay attention to the guys. It seemed like I had a long day before me.
