I wrote this chapter a few times, and it's kind of a filler, but it's paving the way for some important things that'll be happening in the next few chapters, and I'm pretty excited for what's to come.

Thanks for reading, reviewing, liking, and following! Also, this chapter contains some minor, minor smut, if you can call it that.

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 Sixteen: Making Plans

Castiel had been dreading this moment. A week after his nice date with Amriel, he was working and overheard about a mass murder that had taken place in Caribou, Wyoming. A glee club had gotten off their bus at a bar, gone in and killed a group of bikers, then left.

He knew that it was angel on angel violence, but he couldn't believe it. Cas knew that he had to do something. That's why he was waiting for Amriel outside of the gas station for her to get off of her shift, just like he did every night she closed the store. He hated the idea of her walking alone at night, even though he knew she could protect herself better than he could.

Peering through the window, he watched as she counted the money from the register, her pink lips moving along in sync with her hands. She paused, pushing her curtain of golden hair out of her face and laying it all over her right shoulder, exposing her neck as she went back to counting. His heart swelled at the thought that she was his. She loved him, despite everything he had done and stuck by him and been there when he needed her the most.

Castiel knew that he didn't deserve it, though. He didn't deserve her gentle touch or her soothing words after he woke up from nightmares that were just memories of his recent past. The way she looked at him with utter adoration that made him weak in the knees, something he had never felt as an angel. Maybe he shouldn't investigate the murders. He should just stay here with Amriel and let the other angels fight each other.

When he finally came out of his thoughts, he realized that Amriel had spotted him and was motioning for him to come inside. He walked into the gas station and stood on the customer's side of the counter, asking how her night had gone.

"It was fine, Cas," she said with a small smile, leaning against the counter as she spoke. "What did you do today?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. But it can wait until we leave here- it's something better discussed in private." He didn't want to alarm her, but he could already see the worried look working its way onto her face as she bit her lip anxiously. Cas couldn't help but notice how human she came off as. He supposed that with more time watching television shows and observing people here she would fit in seamlessly.

Amriel paper clipped the money together before she put it in the designated bag and zipped it up, going through the standard procedures when it came to closing for the night. She liked mundane tasks like these. Count the money, store it in the safe.

She had already restocked the shelves, and now all she had to do was turn off the lights and lock the doors. Castiel enjoyed these tasks too, she could tell. It was much easier than any of their duties in Heaven. Things here were simple. But she had a feeling that whatever Cas was going to tell her would disrupt their happiness in this small town.

It had started raining by the time everything was done and the doors to the gas station were locked. Neither of them had an umbrella or any sort of cover, but they didn't care. The pair walked back to the motel in the pouring rain hand in hand, Amriel telling Cas about a little boy that had spilled his slushy all over the floor and cried for a solid ten minutes before she could talk him down.

"Children are the most frightening creatures sometimes," Amriel told him. "His face turned bright red and let out this high pitched scream… It was terrible! Cas, his parents didn't even know what to do. I gave him a larger drink and that's when he finally calmed down."

Castiel smiled down at her, knowing that he had seen many kids throw tantrums at the gas station and it had taken him a while to figure out what it took to pacify them. He wasn't surprised that it took Amriel one try. When they were under the overhang of the motel, they stopped outside of their room and looked out into the rain.

"It doesn't feel the same in Heaven," she said from beside him, leaning against the wall and smiling. "The rain, I mean."

Turning to stand in front of her, Cas nodded in agreement. "Many things feel different here, Elle. But not the way I feel about you. In Heaven or on Earth, I will love you with my entire being."

"What did you want to tell me earlier?" She didn't notice the way he was staring at her, taking in her drenched figure and smiling at the way her hair had begun to curl at the ends. Castiel reached out and tucked a strand behind her ear, leaving his palm against her cheek and he said, "It can wait."

He pressed his body against hers and kissed her roughly, feeling her hands reach up to tangle her fingers in his wet hair, and he groaned when she pulled at the dark strands. His hands had a firm grip on her waist as he deepened their kiss, needing more of her than he could have outside against the side of the motel.

Amriel took one of her hands from Castiel's hair and dug into the back pocket of her jeans, feeling for her room key and only breaking their kiss so she could turn her head to look down and unlock the door.

She pulled Cas inside and shut the door behind them, laying a line of salt while his warm fingers roamed under the hem of her shirt. When the line was finished, Amriel turned around and flashed Castiel a bright smile before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him again.

The next thing she knew, her shirt was gone and Cas was kissing her neck, his warm lips making her skin tingle. She ran her fingers through his hair before moving her hands down to the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head in one quick motion and tossing it aside.

She unbuttoned his jeans and while he stepped out of them, Amriel discarded the rest of her clothing and moved further into the room, pulling Cas along with her. With a small smile on her lips, the girl jumped up and wrapped her legs around Castiel's waist, her hands gripping his shoulders as he caught his balance and his hands went to her rear to support her.

When Amriel rolled her hips, Cas closed his eyes tightly and groaned, and a rush of excitement ran through her. When she did it a second time, he moved until they were in the small kitchenette and he sat her on the countertop, his hands moving to her waist as he pressed a sloppy kiss to her lips.

Amriel's fingers raked through his soft, dark hair as Cas moved from her lips to her neck, trailing open kisses along her skin before she pulled him back up to kiss him again. She felt his fingers trail up her thighs and between her legs, and she drew in a sharp breath when he slipped a digit into her slick folds.

"Don't tease me, Castiel," she groaned, leaning her forehead against his shoulder and trying to catch her breath.

As he slid another finger into her and continued working her with a steady rhythm, Amriel wrapped her legs around Cas, pulling him as close as she possibly could. She kissed his neck and shoulder, smiling to herself when she scraped her teeth against his skin and he moaned. After all of their sexual exploration, Amriel found that she loved the noises he made, so she tried to get him to make as much as possible.

Amriel felt a familiar tension building up inside of her, and she knew she wasn't far from her release. But Cas seemed to be taking his time, which annoyed her to no end.

"Faster, please- I'm almost there," she was panting now, tangling her fingers in his hair and kissing him roughly.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Cas froze completely before he withdrew his fingers from Amriel, making her frown in annoyance. She leaned her head back against the cabinets, watching him scramble to pull on his pants so he could answer the door.

"Yes?" His voice was thick, and Amriel heard him clear his throat before continuing, "Can I help you?"

"I- I'm sorry to come by so late, but a young lady stopped by earlier and asked if I would drop off more towels…" A nervous voice filled the room and Amriel was suddenly glad there was a divider between the kitchenette and the door to the room.

"Oh, well, thank you," Cas said awkwardly, and soon enough the door was closed and he came into view with a stack of white towels in his arms. "You asked for these earlier?"

"I totally forgot…" she sighed, "Sorry."

Amriel jumped off of the counter and went to find her underwear, slipping them on along with her shirt that had landed not too far from the bed.

When she turned to face Cas, she jumped when she saw that he was right in front of her, a confused look on his face.

"Are you no longer, um, in the mood?" he asked carefully as she pulled her hair out of the collar of her shirt.

"I think I'm just gonna get ready for bed," she shrugged, and with that, Amriel fled to the bathroom and shut the door behind her, leaving Cas alone.

He had no idea what he had done to earn that kind of reaction from her, but he frowned anyways and ran a hand through his hair before getting ready for bed too.

When Amriel emerged from the bathroom, Cas was already in bed and watching a cooking competition show on TV. She climbed into bed and turned off the light on her night stand, laying on her side and looking at Castiel as he focused his attention on the television.

"I'm sorry about earlier," she finally said. "We've never been interrupted like that and the thought of getting caught scared me. I didn't know what to do…"

Cas finally looked over at her as she trailed off, an understanding gleam in his eyes and he patted the space on the mattress next to him, inviting Amriel to come closer.

Now that she was curled up against Castiel's side, her head resting on his chest and one of her arms was draped across his stomach, and as he started to play with her hair, she realized that this was what it was like to be human. She heard him sigh quietly and she looked up, asking what he was thinking about.

"I need to tell you something," he said in a serious tone, and Amriel shifted so she could see him as he spoke. "I need to go to Caribou, Wyoming. There was a mass murder of angels, done by another group of angels. I have to find out more information… Why it happened, who these angels were-"

"I'm going with you, Cas," she cut him off, lacing her fingers with his and squeezing his hand. "I don't want you handling angels by yourself."

Castiel shook his head, telling her that he was fully capable of doing it on his own.

"It will be fine. I'll only be questioning witnesses and see if I can find a lead, much like Sam and Dean do when they go on hunts."

"This isn't a hunt for demons or ghost," she reminded him. "These are angels. You know what they're capable of, and you can't go alone."

"You're not going to let me go alone, are you?" Cas asked and she frowned, saying she wouldn't know what to do if something happened to him.

"How could I when you're the only thing that makes living on Earth bearable?"

Cas knew that she wasn't going to change her mind, so he took it and said that they would have to leave soon. He mentally went over what they would need: bus tickets, clothes, their weapons. It seemed simple enough. While stuck in his thoughts, he hadn't heard Amriel mulling over how they would quit their jobs or what she would tell Marissa until she asked what he thought.

"I- uh, I hadn't thought of that. We don't have to quit at the Gas-N-Sip, and we don't have to tell Marissa that we're leaving. People take vacations. We can go on one of those."

"I've never been on a vacation. Aren't they supposed to be fun?" Amriel was pretty sure every depiction she had seen of a vacation had been enjoyable.

"It's a business vacation? I'm not sure, I've never been on one of these either. We can call Nora from the road tomorrow and tell her that we had a family emergency, and you can text Marissa if she asks where you went. I don't believe this will take longer than a few days."

"Then it's settled. Tomorrow we'll go to the bus station and get to Wyoming to investigate these killings." She confirmed their plan. "When we come back, maybe we can go on a real vacation."

"I'd like that, Elle. Where would you want to go?" Cas asked, glancing down at her to find that she was staring up at him with a small smile.

"I'm not really sure… Maybe somewhere with a beach. I'd love to see the ocean through the eyes of a human."

Castiel realized that he really had taken his time on Earth for granted. As an angel, he had been so concerned with his cause that he didn't stop to take in the true beauty of the planet he watched over.

"The beach it is, then," he reaffirmed their plans, "Is there anything else you'd like to do? I'm not sure how long it'll take to open Heaven, so it could be years before you can go back."

He knew that he probably wasn't going to get his grace back, so there was no use in hoping he would ever be able to return to the place he had existed in for eons.

Amriel was quiet for a few moments, her brows furrowed in thought before her face lit up and she rolled over to her nightstand, where her phone was plugged into its charger. She retrieved the phone and sat up, navigating through the device's menu until she found her photos. Cas watched in awe at the way she went through it with such ease- like she had been using it for years, not a few months.

"One day, I really want to get a dog. I've seen them at the park, playing with their owners and running around without a care in the world. I… I did some research online, and I've read articles and watched videos, and I want a golden retriever."

She handed him her phone, a photo of dog she had found online sitting next to a sofa on the screen.

"I'd love to take her for walks, play fetch, and give her baths… She would be very well taken care of," Amriel beamed as Cas looked through the photos she had saved to her phone, and he could imagine her doing all of those things with one of them.

"You'd be a very good owner, Elle. But I don't think the motel is pet friendly…"

Amriel sighed, saying that she knew. "That's why we'd have to get a place of our own. Once we have that, then we could get a dog."

"You have certainly thought things through, haven't you?" Cas said with a smile, and he saw her cheeks flush in what he assumed was embarrassment.

"Yeah, I guess I got carried away," she shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear. "When the gas station is empty, I don't have much to keep me busy, so I think about our future."

Cas had never really thought about the future. Honestly, he tried not to. It had been so uncertain since he became human, but a future with Amriel would definitely be one worth thinking about.

"What other things do you envision for our future?"

With that simple question, Amriel began to tell him about all of the things she had thought of, from the small things like what they were going to do for their next date, to the kind of home they would eventually live in when they had the money.

As she talked, Cas found himself starting to think about what he wanted, too, and they stayed up late into the early morning planning their future several times over.