A/N: Sorry it took so long to get the update in. In addition to my usual issues with writer's block and plot bunnies, my account has been a bitch with trying to do uploads.
In this chapter the story is also going solidly AU in the SPN world as well. Sorry I didn't have that noted, it's a recent development.
...
"Some good that does me now," She muttered.
"Look, I really, we wish we'd known. If we'd had any idea at all," Sam tried his turn now to console her, "We'd have ripped them open up one side and down the other. The, you said the 'institute', it wouldn't be there anymore. We don't—we don't let people do that sort of thing. People, monsters, demons, whatever. That's inexcusable. And, I'm really, really sorry we didn't know and we couldn't stop them. But if they were demons, or whatever, can you believe us when I tell you we're the good guys? We are not out to get you. No matter how much people have mistreated you, we are not like that."
"It's already not there anymore," Solairis bit back. "The Flock released all of us recombinants they could, and we just…we ran. Then Itex finally fell. Not that I can see why you'd care—"
"I understand these events caused you great distress, and I truly regret that." Castiel observed. "I am capable of helping heal any injuries you may have incurred, if you—"
"No! I don't want any of you freaks touching me—"
"Ok, first of all we're not freaks, " Dean laughed, but his face turned serious again. "Second, you don't have to flip out on somebody for offering something to help you. We're not gonna force you to do anything. And Cas is right, he can help. Your friend—"
"Sister. As far as we're concerned, she's my sister," Solairis corrected coldly. "And you aren't going to mess with her. Or my brother."
"Whoah. If it was OK with her, I was going to say, Cas could try to heal her wing. Sam managed to set it earlier but I don't imagine it's still all that comfortable."
"No. I'm going—"
Solairis stood to move away, but Castiel was in front of her.
"I apologize for failing you and the others in your position when I had the chance to help you more," he said coolly. "However if you leave now you are losing a vital opportunity. Sam and Dean are good men. They mean to help you, something no one else is apt to do."
"Like you have to tell me that," she said, giving the angel a shove.
"Stop." Castiel commanded, and for some reason, she did.
She looked up to make eye contact with the angel, dread twisting her expression.
"Please, think this over," he added more softly, moving back to his seat. "We are not out to harm you. And I will gladly heal your sister if she so wishes. Although I suppose you'd prefer a demonstration of some sort."
"What do you mean 'heal' her? And if you're gonna demonstrate, or whatever the heck you want to do, you aren't doing it on me or them." She said defensively, jerking a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of Iglesia and Gemini.
"Uh, Riss?" Solairis looked up to see Gemini and Iglesia approaching their seats.
"Oh, god, what now?" She muttered.
"I trust them," was the first thing out of Iglesia's mouth. "And he's right. My wing does hurt. We couldn't help but hear. Or, yknow, I couldn't." Iglesia gave a fanged smile, referencing one of her bat traits.
Solairis frowned fiercely, shaking her head. "Well I don't," she added.
"Wait, we can show you," Sam spoke up. "Don't you have that cut on your arm from testing her, Dean?"
Solairis didn't reply, rather muttering under her breath in disbelief.
"What? Yeah," Dean said, rolling up his sleeve. He raised his arm to show the kids the wound.
"So, Cas, if you'd show them…"
Castiel nodded, touching Dean's forehead with two fingers, his eyes glowing for a moment. Then he dropped his hand from Dean's head, and Dean lifted his arm again to show where the wound had been. It was gone, as if it had never existed to start with.
"Oh my god!" Gemini shrieked. "He really—you really—how'd you do that?!"
"They already said he's an angel, yknow," Iglesia elbowed Gemini from where she stood beside him.
"Fine, fine. Still, it's really freaking cool!" He rejoined, motioning for Solairis to move over. Solairis did so, allowing him to take a seat.
"What do you say, Riss? I'm going to let him fix my wing. Although I'd prefer if you were OK with it," Iglesia said.
Solairis just shook her head. "No. You don't care what I think apparently, so—"
"Dude, that's not true," Gemini cut her off, shaking his head adamantly. "We care, a lot. Why do you think she's asking you, you big feathery moron?"
"I don't know," Solairis hissed. "And I'm not a moron. I kept you alive so far, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did. It's a, uhm, figure of….figure of something." Gemini managed feebly.
Sam failed to contain a small chuckle. "Speech. Figure of speech."
"Yeah, that," Gemini declared sheepishly.
"So…Cas, if that's your name?" Iglesia said shyly, "I—I wouldn't mind if you'd help me."
"That will not be a problem," the angel replied, giving a small smile.
"So what do you have to do? Do you need to see it, can you heal a wing, or—" Gemini gushed, fascination apparent in his voice.
Solairis watched silently, her eyes narrowed in a protective glare.
Castiel shook his head, touching Iglesia's forehead briefly. When he lowered his hand, she made a face of concentration, then a grin grew slowly. "Wow. I can't open them in here, of course, but—it feels like it's completely healed!"
"Really?" Solairis frowned. "I asked you not to, I—"
"Look, Riss," Dean spoke up, using the nickname the kids did for her. "We are not out to get you. If you want to you can walk out that door and never see us again. But there's crap out there, crap worse than you can imagine, that you might run into. Vampires, rugaru, werewolves, demons—" he gave her a stern look, waiting for her to acknowledge his statement. She gave a small nod, frowning at the table. And there's others like us out there that hunt those things. They're not bad folks necessarily, but if they run up on you in another incident like the one we saw, or one worse, well I don't know what they'd do. Out there on your own you're waiting for something like that to happen. You're honestly luck it was us that you ran into, not someone else."
"Hey, sorry it took so long," the bubbly voice of the waitress called as she approached the table, two enormous trays in hand that were loaded down with food.
When the waitress put down the tray, Gemini's eyes widened until it looked like they were going to drop out of his head. "Oh my god. That's the most fantastic thing I've ever seen," he whispered as if in awe.
"Poor kid," Dean mumbled to Sam as Cas and the kids shuffled around to make room for everyone to get seated and take their food. "They really have it rough."
Sam nodded wordlessly, taking his plate.
"By the way, can I get you anything?" The waitress asked Castiel.
"Coffee is all," Castiel replied.
"Alright, I'll have that right out."
Everyone settled in to eating, a tense silence falling. The kids gobbled their food ravenously, as if they were afraid it would grow legs and run away from them.
Castiel mostly just watched the others eat until Dean handed him a napkin with some fries on it, which he took with a smile. Although he didn't have to eat, it didn't mean he didn't enjoy it sometimes.
Gemini paused in eating long enough to speak, although when he did his mouth was still half full, prompting Solairis to make a face at him in reprimand. "I really really love this food. Hot food is the best. And no, before either of you ask, just because I have a lot and Dean is sharing with Cas does not mean you get to have any of mine. Coz for once we all have our own. You guys," Gemini said, raising his glass in towards the brothers, who looked at each other and his glass before returning the gesture, "Are the best ever. I mean, you even share your food."
Iglesia laughed at this. "They don't go hungry like we do, y'know."
"Yeah, but…" Solairis watched as Castiel ate a fry. "Maybe they do mean well."
Sam smiled at seeing the kids seem so happy; hell, if one ignored the content of their speech, the situation seemed almost normal.
"So, how would you guys feel about maybe…going with us?" Sam offered.
Solairis immediately tightened. Gemini shrugged, and Iglesia looked relieved.
"What do you say, Leez?" Gemini asked.
"They're good, and they mean it," Iglesia declared firmly. "I trust them."
"OK then. That's my answer too," he said.
"Although you're hunters. I mean, what, will we do? Are you gonna teach us how to kill vampires?"
"I don't think so, kid," Dean shook his head. "Maybe how to fend off spirits with salt, just in case, though."
"Mmm, OK," he said.
"So what about you? What do you think?" Dean addressed Solairis.
"I…." She began slowly, shaking her head. "I don't know. You're, you're right, though. We are vulnerable. I've tried so hard, though—"
"Yeah, but now you don't have to do it all on your own, see," Dean
offered.
"I…" She looked like she was about to cry, Dean noted.
"Riss, it's OK," Iglesia and Gemini assured her near simultaneously.
"Look, we mean this as a good thing," Sam assured.
"It's gonna be OK, Riss, I promise," Iglesia whispered. She gave a sad smile through her tears as they hugged.
"If…if we went with you, what would happen?" Solairis asked hesitantly.
"Well…we'll find you somewhere to stay, for one," Dean mused aloud.
"Really?" Cynicism was leeching into Solairis' tone again.
"Yeah. Not like, nothing official," Sam added placatingly. "I know it's important to you to be in charge, and wherever you go you will be. OK?"
Solairis nodded coolly. "Where do you live?"
"We have a sort of HQ in Lebanon, Kansas," Dean said. "It's the closest thing to home we've had in, well, forever."
"I'm gonna go make a few calls," Dean said. "Don't cut up too bad on Sam."
Gemini smiled devilishly at Iglesia while Solairis glared at them sternly. Dean chuckled under his breath at them as he got up and walked away from the table.
He went outside, sitting on the bench beside a newspaper stand on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, and pulled out his phone.
He dialed the familiar numbers that he could've done with his eyes closed, the number to the closest thing he'd had to a father in 10 years, and in some ways, a man who was more of a father to him than his own.
Bobby picked up after the second ring.
"Hello."
"Hey, uh, Bobby?" Dean asked.
"Hey, Dean. So what you idjits up to?" Came the gruff but affectionate reply.
"I, uh, we kinda need to call in a favor."
"Ok, shoot." Bobby said.
"Well, uh, we found some kids, and… they're on their own, and uh, the thing is, they're kind of in a unique position."
"What exactly's that sposed to mean?"
"They're not…exactly completely human." Dean said, wishing he'd said anything else at the moment.
"What the heck, boy? They better not be some sorta monsters or crap!" Bobby bit back, Dean frowning into the phone.
"No, no. We tested the crap out of them. They look like monsters, but they're mentally normal humans. Cas verified it for us. At least, as normal as anybody who's been through what they have can be. They were genetically engineered. Apparently it's some of the freakish crap the demons pulled. We ran into them when they got into a scuffle. It wasn't their fault, but the thing is, they're gonna get in a lot of trouble if we don't do something, but we can't exactly drop them off at the county home, like, hey, here's some mutant teenagers for ya…"
"That's OK, but how many are there exactly?"
"Yeah, that's the thing. There's three of them. And they're tight. You can't separate them."
"So what, are you tellin' me they need somewhere to live?" Bobby asked.
"Uh…yeah. Kind of. We can't exactly leave them in the bunker, yknow. Teenagers free to mess with all sorts of occult stuff? We don't know what else to freaking do with them, Bobby." Dean sighed. "I know it's a lot, it's just…"
"Alright then. Bring 'em over. I won't say one way or another until I see them for myself," Bobby declared irritably.
"Bobby…thanks."
"You better not be going soft on me now, you hear? And where are ya, when should I be expecting all of you?"
"Well, right now we're in Chillicothe, Ohio," Dean said. "So, according to Sam's app, about 13 hours. Although the kids may want to stop somewhere for the night. So either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Not sure yet."
"Good lord, boy, you're already calling them 'the kids.'" Bobby laughed. "What's got into you?"
"Nothing! They're just, they're kids, mutant teenage bird-and-bat-kids, I dunno. Kids. That's what they are. It's not like I'm getting attached or anything." Dean said defensively.
"Alright, boy. I'm just pullin' your leg a little," Bobby joked. "Ease up. An' keep an eye. Teenagers 'll keep you on your toes. I should know, I practically raised you two."
"Thanks. I'll call you again when we get closer and let you know what we end up doing."
"OK. Good to hear from ya now and again."
"Yeah, same for you, Bobby," Dean murmured, ending the call.
He went back in the diner, turning to Sam and the kids, who were by now finished with their food, even Gemini, and his three burgers and double order of fries.