Hello! Welcome to chapter twelve! Work has been busy, but my mom is doing a lot better after her surgery and I've had time to go through and reread/edit some stuff, and now here we are. I hope you enjoy!
Thanks so much for reading, commenting, favoriting and subscribing! I really appreciate it. :)
Disclaimer: In no way do I have any rights to Supernatural or any of the characters you are familiar with. I only own Amriel and any OCs that pop up along the way.
Chapter Twelve: Visit
Dean walked into the Rexford, Idaho Gas-N-Sip about ten minutes before closing. He had tapped into Cas' GPS on his phone and tracked him down to this spot, so he knew he was gonna find his friend here. What he didn't expect to find, though, was a blonde little number standing behind the counter in a pair of denim shorts, a white Beatles shirt, and a hideous blue vest that had a name tag pinned to it.
Upon glancing around the store, he realized that they were the only two people in the gas station, and he squinted, wondering where Cas was. The blonde girl greeted him, her sweet voice ringing out, "Good evening, can I help you find anything?"
"Not yet, thanks," was Dean's reply as he scanned the aisles for any trace of Castiel. His gun was a mere inches away from his fingertips, just in case, but so far he hadn't seen anything suspicious except for the fact that a hot girl was working at this dump.
Dean grabbed a slice of blueberry pie and a cup of coffee before heading to the counter, his eyes flashing up to the girl's name tag before scanning her gray eyes and wondering if she had a number he could call once she got off work.
"Hey, Amy," Dean started casually as she rang up his items and grabbed him a plastic fork. "You wouldn't be able to tell me if you've seen someone around here, would you?"
"I see a lot of people come through, so possibly. Who are you looking for?" the girl asked, and Dean figured she couldn't have been over 25. Something about her seemed off, though. Her movements seemed a bit awkward and not as fluid as he would expect of a girl as pretty as she was. She was small enough, Dean could probably snap her tiny frame like a twig, but there was something about her that he couldn't put his finger on.
"Just a friend. I haven't seen him in a while and I thought I'd try and find him," he shrugged. "He's about my height, dark hair, blue eyes, usually has 5 o'clock shadow. Really awkward- doesn't get a lot of jokes."
The girl looked like she was thinking about it and she read off his total. Dean handed her a bill and she quickly made change, bagging his items and tossing the receipt inside, along with a few napkins.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I've seen anyone matching that description. I could take down your name and number and call you if I do, though?"
Dean shook his head, trying to hide his annoyance. The GPS said that Cas was here, at this shitty gas station, right now, and either this girl was lying or he was wrong, and he was rarely ever wrong.
"That's okay, sweetheart. I'll just take my pie and be on my way," Dean leaned forward to take the bag from Amy and caught a glimpse of something familiar beside the register.
Drawing his gun, Dean knew he was probably on security cameras, but he didn't care at this point. Amy stared at the weapon, confused almost, but there was no fear on her face as she glanced from the gun to him.
"Where'd you get that phone from?" he asked, pointing the gun down towards the cash register. That was Cas' phone, he knew it.
"Excuse me?" she replied, unsure of what he meant. "I accidentally took my boyfriend's phone instead of my own. I'm using it until I'm done with my shift."
"Yeah, sure. Save it, Blondie. Where's my friend?"
Dean watched her eyes widen slightly and she hesitated to say, "I don't know who you're talking about."
"You know damn well who I'm talking about!" Dean shouted, but she didn't flinch. "Where's Castiel?"
He saw something in her eyes change- her gaze narrowed and her stance shifted so she wasn't just standing there passively. This Amy girl looked like she was getting ready to fight him.
"Castiel isn't here," was her reply, and Dean almost laughed. "Now, you should probably leave before I call the authorities."
Dean raised an eyebrow- he knew that tone. He recognized that speech pattern and associated it with those dickbag angels he had been dealing with for what seemed like forever. He saw her eyeing the gun with an unimpressed look, so he returned it to its spot in the waistband of his jeans, tucked beneath his jacket, and his mind began racing. He didn't have an angel blade with him.
"Which one are you? Sneezy, Sleepy, Sexy?" Dean asked with a sneer, referring to the angel's vessel, insulting and complimenting her at the same time. He vaguely remembered asking Gabriel a similar question.
"I don't understand your question," she answered, shaking her head and her long, golden hair flowed all the way down her back, making Dean pause for a second as he stared at her.
"What's your God-given name?" he clarified, and Amy rolled her eyes, surprising Dean. Since when did angels besides Cas do that?
"My name is Amriel," she said with a small smile on her pale face, raising her chin slightly. "I am the angel of May. Now, who are you to come into this store and point a weapon at me?"
"I'm the guy that's gonna kill you if you don't tell me where Cas is."
The front door opened and Dean wanted to keep his eyes on this Amriel girl, but he had to see if this was a civilian and if he had to act normal. He quickly averted his gaze and saw his friend standing in the doorway, his eyes wide and his mouth stuck open in some bad attempt to say something.
"Cas?" Dean asked, watching his friend shoot him a glance before looking over to the blonde.
"Amriel, are you all right?"
Those were the first words of of Castiel's mouth, and Dean deflated. He knew her? Judging by the way Cas gawked at her, Dean could tell that he knew her pretty fucking well.
"I'm fine," she said softly and Cas walked past Dean and behind the counter, standing beside Amriel and looking her over to make sure she was telling the truth.
"What the hell is going on here, Cas?" Dean asked, trying to get his friend's attention, and once he did, he could finally get a good look at him.
Cas looked good, to say the very least. He looked healthy and like he had been eating- probably had a decent sleep schedule, too, judging by the lack of bags under his eyes. He was just so human, and it still caught Dean off guard. Cas was wearing a pair of jeans, a dark jacket over a green t-shirt, and boots, and Dean suddenly wondered where his trench coat was.
"Why don't you wait outside until Amriel and I have talked. We still have to close the store and then we can catch up," Cas told him rather than asked, and Dean grumbled something about going out to eat his pie in the car before walking out of the gas station with a huff.
"That was Dean Winchester? I didn't even recognize him," Amriel said quietly, leaning her back against the counter, glad that Cas had shown up when he did. "He pointed his gun at me… But once he realized what I am, he knew that he couldn't do anything with it. Did you tell him where you were?"
Castiel nodded, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. It was early April now and though it was warm during the day, it was still chilly at night.
"I did a few days ago. I told him about the people that spontaneously combusted… That there could be a case here. But I didn't give him this address. He must've located me using my phone, which you took with you this afternoon."
"What are we going to do?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
"We'll see what he has to say. I'll do what I can to help solve this case, but if he needs me to go with him after… I don't think I'll go," Cas gazed out the windows to see Dean eating his pie with a scowl. "I won't be useful as a hunter."
Amriel could see the disappointment all over his face. In the past weeks, they had been making an effort to do more human things, but nothing that would ever have to do with hunting, and she knew that Castiel liked their life as it was.
"It'll be fine, Cas. We'll talk to him and see what happens. You don't have to do anything you don't want to," she said, hoping that she could reassure him.
Cas shifted his weight from one foot to another, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck and letting out a sigh. Shooting him a confused look, Amriel asked him what was wrong, and he frowned.
"Nora asked me to come over to her house tomorrow night. She said that I was a nice guy, and at first I thought it was a date," he saw Amriel tense up and glance to her feet, aware that she was displaying signs of jealousy. "But she told me to invite you as well. Would you like to go?"
"Certainly. I wonder what she wants us to go to her house for…" Amriel mused, a weight lifted from her chest that she had been unaware of. "Should we close up here and go talk to Dean?"
The two quickly went through their regular closing routine and Amriel grabbed her sweatshirt and slipped it on before they left the building and she locked the front doors, following Castiel towards the Impala before realizing that Dean wasn't there.
"Dean?" Cas called out, looking around and peering into the car, wondering where he had gone. He heard a few quick footsteps, and Amriel gasp suddenly, calling out, "Castiel."
He turned around to see that Dean had one arm around Amriel's shoulders, holding her arms against her body, and the other held her own angel blade to her throat. Castiel tensed and held up his hands, "Dean, what are you doing?"
"Who is this, Cas? What the hell is an angel doing here with you?" Dean hissed, pressing the blade against the girl's neck. He could feel the power swimming beneath her skin and he knew that she could kick his ass into next week if she wanted. But he was disgusted that she had played dumb in the gas station, so he kept his grip tight. "Did you know she had this on her?"
"Of course I knew. I insisted that she keep it with her at all times." Castiel's eyes flickered from Dean's to Amriel's, and he could clearly see the fear in her stormy eyes. "Let Amriel go, Dean. I called you about those people, not for you to hurt her."
The hunter sighed and dropped his arms, handing the blade back to the small girl, who quickly took it and tucked it back in its place before practically sprinting to Cas, who opened his arms and embraced her warmly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Dean raised an eyebrow, wondering what Cas had been up to since he had left the bunker.
"Now that you've successfully threatened my girlfriend, would you like to come back to where we've been staying and discuss the deaths I told you about?"
Girlfriend? Dean was floored. The Cas he knew was a straight up weirdo. How did he land a- oh, that's right. The chick's an angel. She's just as strange as Cas. He watched the way they gravitated towards each other- the blonde's shoulder brushing against Cas' arm, and he immediately noticed the contact and took her hand. Dean raised an eyebrow; a lot had changed in the last six months, hadn't it?
"Yeah, that's fine. I'll drive," Dean pulled himself from his stupor and grabbed his keys from his front pocket. He saw Cas glance down to Amriel, who looked worried for some reason. "What, never been in a car before?"
Cas shot him a glare, but the blonde shook her head, biting her lip. "No, I actually haven't."
"Well…" Dean wanted to say something snarky, but he knew that it wouldn't be smart to piss off an angel that had been homeless for the last six months. So instead, he flashed her a smile as he opened the back door for her. "It'll be fine, I promise."