Sam glanced into the backseat where Alora lay curled in a ball sleeping. She had a hoodie pulled up over her head and her hands were crammed into the pocket while she slept. He could admit that when she wasn't yelling at them or asking more questions than they had answers for that she was pretty. He could see why Castiel was attached to her as well, she was strong, smart and he could tell that she was a compassionate, kind person, the kind of person who would be able to handle Cas at his most guilt ridden.
"How did we not see this sooner?" Dean asked softly.
"See what?" Sam asked.
"Cas having a girlfriend. How did we miss that he had a girlfriend this whole time?" Dean glanced over at his brother and Sam shrugged.
"He's never really expressed much interest in women…"
Dean gave a small grin. "Heh, yeah… you know for a while I thought maybe he was into dudes."
Sam's lips quirked. "You know I had that thought too. But he never seemed interested in that sort of thing. Friends yeah, he likes having friends but he's like a kid… you never really think of them growing up and having sex…"
Dean wrinkled his nose. "Dude I don't want to think about Cas having sex. I mean what is that even like? He only just started understanding Star Wars references."
Sam shook his head and sighed. "I suppose they all grow up eventually."
Dean shifted and they rode in silence for a few minutes before Dean spoke up again. "Do you think she was lying about the healing thing?"
Sam considered it then shook his head. "No. She was too shocked by that to have known."
"Then how did it happen?" Dean asked.
"Maybe it's what happens when you have sex with an Angel?" Dean suggested.
"That's not in any of the Lore." Sam retorted.
"Neither is people regularly boning an angel." Dean replied.
Sam nodded slowly. "It's probably why that angel wanted her."
They heard the leather of the seat behind them creak and Sam glanced into the back but Alora was still asleep, she had just turned onto her other side. Dean spoke up softly. "Well whatever happened she's screwed."
"What? Why?" Sam asked.
"Dude have you seen our lives?" Dean asked rhetorically. "And she's sleeping with the Angel Equivalent of Mr Magoo. There's nothing safe or sane about our lives and now that her connection to Cas is out in the open she's at the top of every supernatural bad guys hit list if only to hurt Cas which would hurt us. She's a walking talking target."
Sam thought about it and sighed. "You're right. So what do we do about it?"
Dean shrugged. "I have no idea. I'm still stuck on Cas has a smoking hot girlfriend."
Sam chuckled and left his brother to his thoughts, in the back Alora lay staring at the leather of the backseat her heart hammering and he mind whirling with the implications for her life. She'd known that with Cas being an Angel again things were different but she hadn't realized how different. Her heart squeezed painfully but she controlled her breathing and kept pretending to be asleep. 'Oh Cas what is going on…?'
One Month Ago:
Castiel stood staring at the displays of brightly colored flowers remembering the first bouquet he'd given Alora the day he'd confessed that he loved her. His head was tilted to the side as he looked at the flowers and he didn't realize how long he'd been standing there until he heard a pair of women whispering. "He's been there for an hour Doris."
"I know but he's not hurting anyone."
He shifted and started picking flowers from the display assembling a bouquet that was as bright and joyous as Alora. The woman who accepted the payment for the flowers smiled kindly at him. "She must be a very lucky woman."
He gave her a smile that surprised her as he took the flowers in the brand new vase he'd chosen. "I'm the lucky one." He said and turned to leave.
"You remind me of my late husband. He used to take his time choosing flowers too." She patted his hand. "You're lucky to have each other."
He smiled again and left the shop. Tonight was the night. He'd spent weeks finding the ingredients for the spell and he was sure it would work, he just needed her to be as open and receptive as possible. He decided that in the interests of saving power he'd walk up the six flights of stairs to the apartment the way he had when he was human and as he climbed he reflected on the last 10 months he'd spent with her. When he let himself into the apartment he heard her music playing softly and her singing softly along, he heard the clink of dishes as well. She only sang when she was cleaning and he smiled stopping inside the door so he could hear her sing. When she stopped he crept up behind her and kissed her cheek which made her gasp and smile brightly at him. "Cas! You said you weren't going to be home this week."
He smiled gently at her and held the flowers up. "I could not stay away."
She took the flowers and smelled them then leaned up on tiptoes to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and savored the taste of her lips under his. When they parted she added water to the vase and set the flowers out next to the window where the late afternoon sun made them seem brighter. He stripped off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves looking around the brightly lit apartment, his home more than heaven or the bunker ever were. The song switched to a jazzy number and he grinned reaching over tugging her into his arms and dancing with her while she laughed. "You're a lot more relaxed today. What's the occasion?"
He nuzzled her neck and laid a soft kiss on the skin. "Sam and Dean are safe, the world is safe for now, no one is hunting me at the moment and I am home where I belong."
She turned her head and caught his lips with hers. "All fantastic reasons to be in a good mood." She murmured as they swayed around the livingroom.
Later that evening after Cas had managed to eat a small portion of spaghetti, despite his insistence that he couldn't really taste the food anymore, he sat with her on the couch watching her favorite Godzilla movie while she sipped a glass of wine and nibbled on popcorn. He didn't even try to pay attention to the movie, he never understood them anyway, instead he watched her watching the movie, the way she smiled and mouthed the lines alongside the actors and her mischievous grin when she pantomimed astonishment. When the credits rolled she stretched and he smiled as her, she smiled back and stood up to turn off the DVD player. "I love these stupid old movies." She said softly.
He chuckled and stood up wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling the back of her neck. "I cannot say the same. I never understand them but I love watching you watch them."
She turned in his arms and looped her arms around his neck and rubbed her nose against his. "This from the man who can talk for hours about Star Wars being an allegory for the Iliad."
He smiled and ran his fingers through her short dark hair. "It had many allegorical sources…" He started and she put a finger against his lips laughing.
He nipped at her finger then leaned in to kiss her, the kiss grew in heat and he was soon running his hands up under the shirt she wore. She walked them backwards to the bedroom and fell back on the bed with him kneeling above her. Their lovemaking was slow and sweet and while they laid together on the bed after he traced his fingers along her back, she didn't realize there was any pattern to the tracery but he was slowly tracing lines of power into her skin. She was as open to him as she ever would be in the post coital moment and he used the openness to start the spell. She relaxed and dozed in the blissed out haze and he used a small piece of his power to summon the vial of brightly glowing liquid into his hand. He warmed it in his hands before pouring it onto her back and began massaging it into her skin where it sparked against the lines he'd traced along her back. He closed his eyes and prepared for the final step, she was laying completely passive on the bed and he knew that meant he'd prepared the spell properly, she'd wake and think only that she'd fallen asleep instead of what he'd truly done which was place her temporarily in an enchanted sleep so he could tamper with her soul.
He carefully extracted her soul into the bottle that had held the glowing liquid and then pulled his own angel blade out and pricked his throat. His Grace surged out of the small puncture and he held the bottle to the injury capturing the smallest portion inside with Alora's soul. He quickly healed the puncture in his throat and set his blade aside and held the bottle up to inspect the contents.
Aloras soul was a dancing shining thing, motes of brilliant white light danced in the paler blue of his Grace and he gave the bottle a gentle shake to integrate them more fully before he started speaking in enochian casting the spell which would link her life with his Angelic Grace. He carefully turned her over onto her back and opened her mouth and carefully tipped the contents of the vial into her mouth, the Grace infused Soul slid back into her and she shifted a little her veins glowing for a fraction of a second before settling into stillness again. He checked her over and felt a sense of relief fill him, so long as she contained even a fraction of his Grace she would live as long as he could, she would not age, she would never sicken again and she would heal anything short of a deathblow from an angel blade. He lifted the enchanted sleep and gathered her in close against him as she stirred in a more normal human sleep, if all went well by the time he had to explain to her why she was not aging the world would be a far safer place.
