Chapter 8

Personal space

Mia stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom for a brief moment before she undressed. The first thing that stood out, as always, was the big ugly scars on her stomach. She had more of them on her back; they had always made her very self-conscious. She simply had thought that no one could ever find her attractive, especially after the boys in school had laughed at the picture of her scars. They had called her ugly, hideous, gross, disgusting, Quasimodo, the bride of Frankenstein and so on. She had hated her own reflection for a long time after that.

Nowadays she had accepted her body the way it was, but she still wasn't comfortable letting anyone see her naked. For some reason she had tried dating few times, but it had never worked out, no one had wanted to deal with her issues. Not that she could blame them, she certainly wasn't the easiest person in the world. Not to mention she had the mark of the devil on her chest. She had tried not to think about what that could mean, but Sam had assured that she wasn't some kind of monster.

He should know, he had told her that he and Dean had hunted monsters with their dad ever since they had been kids. That had sounded very strange to Mia, children shouldn't experience something like that, but she hadn't said anything, she hadn't wanted to insult Sam. Mia really liked him and Dean too. The angel wasn't so bad either, although she was still a little cautious around him. Still she would have never thought that she could be comfortable staying in a small cottage with three men she had just met few days ago. She just didn't find them, especially Sam, intimidating and it was kind of nice to look after someone after spending so much time by herself.

She had used to look after her mom a lot and in her foster home the children have had a schedule for the household chores, cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes and so on. It was nice to cook for someone who appreciated it and didn't complain. She was just about to step behind the shower curtain when she saw a glimpse of a man through the mirror. Her first reaction was instinctive; she screamed and turned around as quickly as she could. Castiel was standing only few inches away from her.

"I apologize if I startled you," he stated calmly. "I need to ask you few questions…"

"I'm naked!" she snapped and tried to cover her breasts with her arms.

"Yes, I can see that. About those questions…"

"Get out!" she shouted and shoved him, she was too angry to care that he could see her breasts.

"Mia!" Sam's voice called before he kicked the door open, Dean was right behind him. Oh great…

They both froze for a moment and stared at her, she sighed and grabbed the towel, although there really wasn't any point, they had already seen everything there was to see.

"Could you all please get out?"

Sam cleared his throat and looked down.

"Yes…yes, of course. Come on, Cas."

"But I need…"

"Not now."

"Very well," Castiel replied, he hadn't turned his eyes away from Mia. "I will wait outside."

"How considerate of you," she huffed. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Sorry about this," Sam muttered.

"Yeah, but if it's any consolation…" Dean started and grinned. "Wow."

"Dean," Sam snapped. "Again, sorry."

Mia bit her bottom lip when they closed the door behind them; she felt the need to break into a snigger. It took a moment before she managed to step under the shower and turn the water on. That should have been one of the most embarrassing moments of her life and of course it had been, but… They hadn't laughed or looked disgusted. But then again, maybe they had just been polite. Yes, that must be it. She took a quick shower, got dressed and took her time to brush her hair before she was ready to face them. All three of them were in the living room; Sam had a guilty look on his face.

"Listen, Mia… We're very sorry…"

"It's okay," she replied. "You didn't do that on purpose." She paused and glanced at Castiel. "I think."

"I told you, I only wanted to ask you few questions…"

"Personal space, Cas," Dean huffed. "We've talked about that many times."

"Yes," Castiel replied and looked at Mia. "I apologize again."

She nodded.

"I accept your apology. Maybe we can just pretend that none of that ever happened."

"Oh, I don't know if that…" Dean started. "Sure we can," he finished when Sam glared at him.

"Okay, good. I think I'll go and wash the dishes…"

She didn't have time to finish her sentence when Dean's phone started to ring.

"Yeah?" he answered. "Speaking… What? How bad? Uh huh… Yeah… Yeah, I'm on my way."

He looked tense when he hung up.

"Bobby's in the hospital."

"What?" Sam gasped. "Is he…"

"Some kind of complication, we need to go there right now."

Sam had mentioned this Bobby; it wasn't difficult to tell how important he was to the both brothers.

"Do you want me to go with you…" Mia started.

"No," Dean cut in and glanced at Castiel. "Can you stay with her?"

"Of course," he replied.

"Thanks."

Dean was already on his way to the door, but Sam stepped in front of Mia.

"I'm sorry, but we have to…"

"I understand," she cut in and touched his shoulder. "I hope your friend is going to be okay."

"I hope so too," Sam muttered gloomily.

Few hours later

"Do you want me to drive?" Sam asked.

"No," Dean replied simply and continued humming Metallica's Enter Sandman. They had listened to Metallica for couple of hours now, but Sam hadn't said anything, he could see how tense Dean was.

"I'm sure Bobby's fine," Sam continued after a moment of silence.

"Yeah."

Obviously Dean wasn't in a talkative mood. Neither was Sam, so he gave up and looked outside, lost in his thoughts. It would be morning soon, they were almost there. Sam closed his eyes and tried to clear his head. Of course he was worried about Bobby and he shouldn't be thinking about anything else, but he kept finding himself thinking about something else. Someone else. Seeing her naked had been… No, he needed to stop this right now. What the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn't he get her out of his mind? Stop it…

"Hello, boys," a familiar voice suddenly said from the backseat, making Dean to hit the breaks. Crowley.