The three companions piled into the car about an hour later, not surprised in the least that John still wasn't awake. Oh well, his alarm clock would wake him soon enough. Dean turned on his tape player, and loud drums filled the car. Sam rolled his eyes, and Castiel guessed he had to listen to this music every time they were in the car. Cas also found that the back seat was a lot more comfortable in comparison to the front, and decided that he would sit there every time they took a ride for the duration of his land-walking trip. Dean laughed, telling him that the front seats had the better view, but Castiel wouldn't hear anything about it, opting to stretch his legs out across the seat and lean against the door. Sam did tell him it wasn't safe, but he shrugged it off. Dean also laughed at Sam for his comment, telling him that Dean would never get into an accident, so his concerns were misguided and useless.
As they passed several houses, Castiel tapped Sam on the shoulder and pointed to one in particular. "That house has a 'garden gnome' in their garden. Apparently they are for decoration, to make it more cheery, despite the fact that gnomes are notorious tricksters and would probably rip you in half before sitting idly in your garden with your rotting vegetables." Castiel didn't catch the look of disturbed confusion that crossed Sam's face after he said this, and continued pointing out to him all of the things on the side of the road. If he didn't understand the purpose of the stacks of bricks on the lawn, or the swingset just visible past the fence in the backyard, he would ask Dean, and Dean would reply almost patiently. Sam had never known his brother before this day, he decided, that he could be this calm about explaining things most people would know at the age of four. "And over there there is a pink flamingo. Do not worry, it is actually plastic, and cannot move from it's position. If so, it would be very tired, holding it's leg up like that for the twenty-odd years it has been sitting on the lawn."
"Are we there yet?" Sam asked Dean in mild exasperation.
"Does it look like we're there yet, Sammy?" Dean deflected, looking straight ahead.
"What is that?" Castiel tapped Sam on the shoulder this time, pointing over Sam's other shoulder out the window at a basketball hoop at the end of a driveway.
"That's a basketball hoop, Cas, you use it to play basketball."
"What's basketball?"
"You toss an orange ball around, and whoever gets it through the hoop more times wins the game." Sam explained.
"Dean, we should play basketball." Castiel stated, leaning back in his seat again, content with the answers he'd been given.
"Sure, Cas, whenever we get the chance."
They kept driving, leaving their little town and moving onto a highway. There were substantially fewer things for Castiel to question here on the highway, so both brothers breathed a silent sigh of relief. The merman in the back seat fell silent, watching the lines in the road bob along. They continued this way for about ten more minutes, before Dean pulled off the highway and onto a smaller town road.
Sam breathed an audible sigh of relief when they pulled into the parking lot of a bar, deserted at this hour but open all the same. Castiel was going to ask where they were, but Sam jumped out of the car before he could, and he started struggling with the door handle again. He and Dean got out of the car and walked towards the front door.
"Now, Cas, you get to meet some of my friends."
Two updates in one night, because they were relatively short and I wanted to get this idea down.
Anyway, I still made Ellen, Jo, and Ash live/work at a bar because it would be weird seeing them anywhere else, but I didn't specify which one or a name because I never really figured out in what town they were in in the first place and didn't want to put anything where it didn't belong.
If that made any sense.
-D
