AN: Here is chapter eleven. It is exactly two weeks until Christmas! Let's all hope the major winter storm and freezing rain do not affect my power or internet. :S
Chapter Eleven
December 11
"Teach me," Katie demanded, flopping down into the stiff motel chair across from Sam.
Sam looked up and blinked wearily, sighing. He wanted to learn more about the future, but he had agreed to finish the hunt first. As much as he wanted the information, it was no use acting like a prick about it. That was for Dean.
"Teach you what?" Sam asked.
"Research," Katie smiled, "so pass me a book and let's get this party started."
"Here," Sam said, smiling at the enthusiasm which he was sure would not last long. He tossed a couple of library books he had picked up yesterday in front of Katie, who eagerly grabbed the first one and looked up at him for further information. "We need to find out everything we can on 21 Daniels Street. These are local history books; there might be a line or two mentioning past owners or the house itself."
"Right," Katie said, starting to read the book thoroughly. She did not want to be responsible for missing any piece of information.
Sam gave a half-smile at the sight Katie made, brow furrowed in concentration. It was impossible to stay mad at these girls – they were too cheerful. Actually, thinking about the two of them, he glanced around for a sign of Sarah. Her auburn hair always stood out in a room; however, she had not come in with Katie. It was weird seeing Katie without Sarah, the two had been inseparable since they reunited.
"Where is Sarah?" Sam asked curiously.
"Just in our room banging Cas," Katie said simply, not even looking up from her book.
Sam's elbow slipped off the table in shock. "Oh," was all he said, glancing uneasily at the wall separating the two rooms.
Katie glanced up and laughed at Sam's face. "Dude, kidding," she gasped between giggles. "Sarah isn't really that kind of girl; if she was we wouldn't be in this situation."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked, intrigued.
"I remember some of my possession," Katie sighed, the sick feeling creeping back on her at the mere thought of the demon. "The man ... it killed told the demon that the only reason the necklace would work is if the ritual had been done."
"Wait," Sam said, leaning forward and closing his laptop, much more interested in what Katie was saying. "How would that guy know?"
"I guess he sold it to the demon in the first place," Katie shrugged. "When the demon was sucked back into this dimension it wanted answers, she was supposed to be in our world for a month before being yanked back. So it went after the idiot that gave her the necklace. He said that someone in our world must have done the ritual."
"What ritual?" Sam asked.
"The necklace must be worn by a virgin, get splashed with cows blood and spin several times – then it takes a few hours to activate," Katie listed, the memory of the man, kneeling bloody in front of her, causing her to grimace.
"But even if Sarah is a, well, yeah, even if she is, I can see the spinning, but cow's blood?" Sam asked. "That doesn't seem likely."
"Lianne, one of our roommates, tried to make hamburgers from scratch," Katie explained.
"And that resulted in splashing around cow's blood?" Sam looked dazed.
"If you knew Lianne, you would not be surprised," Katie laughed. "Sarah, virgin, wore the necklace, got smashed with cow blood thanks to Lianne's cooking skills and then went out dancing. Unwittingly sending me, a demon and herself here."
"Huh," Sam said, leaning back. "That's unlucky."
"Yeah," Katie agreed, once again going to read her book. "Anyways, I don't know where Sarah is."
"Are you not worried?" Sam asked.
"Um, no?" Katie said, giving a slight laugh. "She's a grown up. She can take care of herself."
Sarah could not take care of herself. The store was a maze.
That morning, she had told Katie she wanted to explore the town before they had to do all the hunting stuff. It had resulted in her meandering through different stores, and using the wad of cash Bobby had given them to pay for a bus ride downtown. She bought a disposable camera and snapped a few pictures of the downtown and a few cute shops.
Then she had wandered onto the bus, out to some shopping box stores. It had sounded like a good idea, but now she was lost in an Ikea. She had never seen one in real life. The shops did not exist in the Maritimes, but she had heard comedians and shows mention it. Now she knew why they made fun of the place, it was confusing, the signs were crap, the names of things were meaningless jumble of letters and she kept ending up in the cafeteria. To make matters worse, she could not remember which bus she had used to get out here. She was stranded in Ikea-land and she had no idea how to get back to the motel. She wasted one picture doing a sad 'I'm lost' face, and then started to worry.
As her eyes scanned the group of middle aged ladies examining a mountain of tea lights, Sarah could have yelled in delight at the sight of a worker. Running over and trying not to knock over a glass display.
"Excuse me," she called out, catching the ladies attention. She looked to be early fifties, with greying hair but a pleasant, kindly smile. "Sorry to interrupt you, but would it be possible to use the phone?"
"Sure dear," the lady said pleasantly, guiding her through the maze with an uncanny knowledge of the layout. Sarah would never work in a store like this, she would just keep getting lost. When she was directed to the phone behind the customer service desk and told to dial nine before the number, Sarah had to pause and think of who to phone.
Bobby had given both Sarah and Katie a list of everyone's cell phone numbers. Now, she could not call Bobby, he was hours away. She thought of calling Dean since he was the one with a car. But he had made such a deal out of them coming; she did not want to give him any actual valid points against them coming along. She wasn't interested in hunting, but she did not want to be left at Bobby's. Katie would make fun of her for the rest of her life. Literally. She would never live this down. Sam ... Sam was actually an option. He wouldn't mind too much, and was less likely to make fun of her. Though he would probably tell Dean and then it went back to her first point. So that left one person. Cas.
Dialling Castiel's number, Sarah crossed her fingers that the angel would answer. "Hello," said a gravely voice on the other side.
"Cas?" Sarah said, "I kind of need you to –"
"I'm behind you," Castiel said, though this time his voice was also coming from directly behind her. Grinning she hung up the phone and gave him a quick hug.
"Thank you, thank you, I'm so sorry you had to show up!" She gushed, smiling up at his confused face.
"Why are you apologizing?" Cas asked, with his signature head tilt.
"I'm Canadian," she said, waving away the question. "I really need your help. I am completely lost."
"Lost?"
"Yeah, I came into this store and I can't find my way out. I keep ending up in the cafeteria," Sarah explained.
Castiel looked down at her, face serious, considering the situation. He then looked up and tilted his head. "Are those not the doors there?" He asked.
Sarah turned around and was embarrassed to see the glass doors just barely past a large Santa display. In her defence, it was not extremely obvious.
"Never, ever tell anyone about this," Sarah said, dead serious. "Come on, we better try to get through the Christmas shoppers. How do you want to do this? Hand or shoulder?"
"What?" Cas asked, bewildered and scared at the thought of trying to walk through the crowd of holiday shoppers.
"Listen, we are about to dive into a sea of shoppers. Women shoppers... during the holidays ... I suggest we either hold hands or you hold my shoulder, otherwise we are going to get separated. This works, my friends and I do this at really crowded bars. Just don't let go," Sarah explained.
Castiel blinked down at her, face completely unreadable, but serious. As if the decision to touch either hand or shoulder was life or death in variety. Rolling her eyes and getting impatient, Sarah grabbed his hand and dragged him through the crowds. Not scared to elbow and squeeze her way through the crowds, muttering a 'sorry' or 'I'm so sorry' or 'excuse me', Sarah kept her eyes on the prize. The light shining through the doors was like heaven to Sarah right now. Taking her first step out into real world, Sarah let go of Castiel's hand and spun in a happy circle. The bone-chilling cold wind was a welcome embrace next to the stuffy body-heat of the packed store. Smiling back at the angel, Sarah spread her arms wide.
"We're free!" She yelled, skipping back to Cas, holding his hands out in front of them both. "You, mister angel sir, are awesome and amazing and I owe you big time!"
"I did think humans complimented people this often," Castiel commented.
"True, depends on the person. Kind of like how it depends on the angel," Sarah said, walking towards the bus stop beside Castiel. "I mean Uriel was a dick. You aren't. Plus, I mean, I'm not lying. You are pretty amazing. I mean, you put up with Dean."
Castiel smiled at her, before looking around.
"Where are we going?" He asked.
"The bus stop," Sarah answered. "You don't mind taking the bus do you?"
"I have never been on a bus," Castiel commented.
"It's not too exciting," Sarah shrugged. "But it s a skill everyone should have. Come on, I'll show you."
It took them two hours to get back to the motel. First they asked every bus if it went to the right location. It was a small city, there were only four busses and they came every half-hour during the holiday time. The first hour was spent waiting. The wind was cold, and Sarah thought her fingers would fall off. However, she spent the entire time telling Castiel stories of her world. She explained snow fights (and why they were fun), and explained the joys of hot chocolate on a cold day. It was fun. Sarah took a few photographs of Castiel and her waiting. When the bus came, Sarah was overjoyed to get onto the bus, where it was much warmer. They were on the bus for forty-five mintues traveling up and down the small city. The bus seemed to go everywhere else, until finally they got to the closest drop off point. Sarah could tell it was a small city when the only people using the bus were the extremely elderly. One man had to be over ninety. Smiling she made small-talk with him while Cas listened. Unfortunately the closest drop off point was a good ten minute walk to the motel. The reason it took fifteen minutes was when Sarah forced Castiel to stop with her in a small cafe on the way. There she ordered two hot chocolates which they drank the rest of the way home.
"You are a very different person," Castiel commented as they saw the hotel down finally come into sight.
"Good different?" Sarah asked laughing.
"I think so," Castiel thought hard. "You seem much happier than I am used to."
Sarah sighed and kept her eyes in front of her. "Sam and Dean have been through a lot. There was a time, before you, when they were much more like me. Or maybe not like me, but definitely not as serious. You can't blame them; they've literally been to hell and back."
"Yes," Castiel agreed.
"I'm lucky. I know that. Not many people get what I did. A family, a home, friends ... I have a lot to be happy for I guess," Sarah said, thinking about it.
"But you don't anymore," Castiel said.
"Not true," Sarah objected. "I have family, Katie is here. I have a home, it might move around and change, but Bobby's opened his house for me. Dean, however reluctantly, has let me in on his home – the impala. And I have you, don't I?"
Castiel looked at her and tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"You're my friend. See, I have everything that matters in life," Sarah smiled. "I want to go home, but there's comfort in knowing that I have things here which I care about as much."
Finally at the motel, Sarah noted that her room was in complete darkness, and the only light came from Sam and Dean's room.
"Come on," Sarah said, nudging Castiel. "Enough of this serious talk; let's go see what needs killing."
As the two of them entered the house, they were immediately jumped on by three worried people. It was five in the evening, there had been no word from Sarah, it was starting to very dark and they had started to get extremely worried.
"Where the hell have you been?" Dean asked.
"Yeah!" Katie agreed. "You said you were going to go for a walk this morning, and you don't show up until five?"
"You really should have called guys," Sam said quietly from over in his corner, laptop still on the table in front of them.
"We've been working our butts off!" Katie scolded. "You have no idea how worried I was getting."
"I'm sorry guys," Sarah apologized, taking off her coat. It made her feel incredibly guilty to think she had worried them so much. "So ... how's the research coming?"
"Horrible," Katie complained, throwing her book onto the bed. "Nothing interesting or note-worthy ever happened in 21 Daniels Street."
"Wait, 21 Daniels Street?" Sarah asked, glancing around the room. "It was a speakeasy in the twenties."
Three incredulous faces turned to her. "How the hell would you know that?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, Sarah, that's super random," Katie added.
"William told us," Castiel answered, not giving any more information.
"William?" Dean prompted.
"He was this old guy on the bus, we had a great chat," Sarah answered. "He told us all about the house, it was built by his uncle."
"I can't believe you got to go have fun, while I was stuck inside all day – and you still have more information than I do," Katie said, smiling at Sarah.
"What can I say? I'm lucky," Sarah fired back.
AN: Thank you to my wonderful reviewers. I am enjoying all of them. It's nice to see so many following the story. I need to go, but I hope everyone is having a great weekend. ~Ella
