Next chapter we get a look at how the boys are handling Barretta being this skittish. She's very confused and overwhelmed right now, because Cas can be a shock to people when the first meet him. Enjoy!

Barretta jerked awake, her wings curling reflexively around her. Her face felt dry from the tears she'd shed earlier after the man had left. A heavy door slammed below her, followed by quiet cursing that the room's acoustics amplified and and brought to her sensitive ears, making her flinch. Dean sounded angry. He was probably coming to punish her for earlier. Boots sounded loud on the floor directly below her and she tried to sink back into her alcove. He wouldn't be able to get to her up here, though he probably didn't care, he knew she'd have to come down sooner or later.

"Barretta? It's Dean," she jumped as his deep voice rang through the space, bouncing lightly off the walls. "I've got some food here for you. It's a homemade hamburger, and I scrounged up some of Sammy's rabbit food to make you a salad. You don't have to come down right now, so I'll leave the food here and you can come down when you're ready."

She heard a couple of things clink in the concrete floor below her, then watched as Dean went to his car and open the trunk. He grabbed a weird flimsy square thing and dropped on the roof of the car before closing the trunk. He left out the door he came in, not calling for her again. She heard the heavy door close and all was silent in the large room. She uncurled slightly, tilting her head to the side to listen for any signs of life in the room. She couldn't hear anything, but that didn't mean they weren't still in the room hiding and watching.

She stayed still for a little while, waiting, and when nothing happened, Barretta uncurled fully. She crept forward towards the narrow part of the rafter hanging over the expansive space. She was hesitant to leave her safe spot in the alcove but she stalked out to the middle, using her hands to grip the edges carefully as she went forward. Her wings were tucked in as close to her as they could be while still helping her to maintain her balance on the beam.

Sitting back on her haunches, she looked about the floor and spotted the food. There was a meat patty sitting in between two half flat pieces of bread on a weird round flat thing separating the food from the floor. Next to it was a bowl filled with leafy greens and orange chunks interspersed throughout. Barretta glanced nervously around the room for anyone that might be watching before leaning forward on the edge of the rafter and spreading her wings to catch the air as she did a controlled fall. She did a small lap around the room before landing quietly on her feet near the food.

Now that she was closer, she could see that the orange chunks in the bowl were cut up carrots. Padding forward cautiously, she crouched down and picked up one of the chunks and scented it. It smelled weird. It smelled like the forest she'd been in, faint scents of dirt and water clinging to its surface, not like the stuff on the carrots that the Man gave her. Those left a weird taste in the back of her throat. She put it down and moved over to the meat patty. It smelled cooked, like the meat in the bags the Man used to bring for himself.

The heavy door opened suddenly and Dean stepped through again, this time holding a water bottle. Barretta froze, still crouched near the food, her eyes blown wide and her wings tightly pressed against her body in fear. She didn't move from her position as Dean entered, closing the door behind him as softly as he could, wincing when it still moved loudly. He turned around and froze, catching sight of her stance. They stared at each other in surprise. She flinched and shrank back as Dean broke the silence,

"Good to see you finally came down. Didn't mean to startle you like this, looks like you didn't get a chance to eat the food I brought, sorry," Dean moved slowly, yet she still cringed back, bracing herself for a blow. A blow that never came. "Barretta…" she jerked, a wing competing up to hopefully shield her head and face from a blow. She heard a sad sigh and some shuffling near her. Then there was a hand on her wing. It was just sitting there. Not gripping her wing or pulling out feathers to try and get to her body. It wasn't even moving. It just sat on her wing gently.

She heard Dean take a breath to say something when the big door behind him suddenly opened. The hand on her wing moved off as Dean jumped slightly and Barretta immediately sprang back as far as she could, almost tripping over herself in her haste to propel herself back into the air, her wings flapping wildly. She knew she was flapping so hard she probably lost a few of the loose feathers in her hurry to get back to the rafters. Sam's questioning voice floated up from the floor below,

"Dean?"

"I don't know, Sammy. I think she was gonna eat, but I startled her when I came back in." Dean sounded shocked and like he'd cared(?) that she hadn't eaten.

"She was just getting to it? Nothing looked like it'd been eaten?" Sam sounded... worried?

"Nothing. I just came back to give her a water bottle."

"Do you think she thinks we poisoned the food?"

"We didn't put anything into the food; its all natural. We both made sure of it."

"Dean, she-" the heavy door closing cut off the rest of the conversation, and they'd left the food where it was. She was alone again. She brought her wing around and stared at where Dean had rested his hand on the feathers, not disturbing a single one. What was he going to say before the big door opened, she wondered. He hadn't hit her, hadn't said any harsh words or even look at her with anger. He only observed that she hadn't eaten, then apologized for startling her! He hadn't even tried to catch her when she bolted. He confused her. She deserved to be punished. So why wasn't she?

Plus, that conversation he had with his brother. They'd been speaking quietly, not realizing that the space caught the sound of their voices and amplified it enough for her sensitive ears to pick up the words being said. They couldn't have been lying. The food wasn't poisoned and it was completely natural. A word she'd only heard when the Man was belittling her. One of his favourite activities was to call her an "unnatural abomination of nature." Did that mean the food was safe? Her stomach growled loudly in the quiet space.

She made up her mind, creeping out to the narrow part of the beam carefully and looked down at the food. Doing another low lap around the room, she glided back to the food and gathered all of the carrot chunks and put them next to the meat patty as she removed the bread to put it in the bowl. She balanced the flat thing carefully in her hands and she flew back up to her safe haven.

Picking up one of the carrots, she carefully put it in her mouth and was pleasantly surprised. It tasted different, but good. She quickly wolfed down the rest of the food before curling up to sleep, her wings acting as both body warmer and a soft place to rest her head. Her stomach was content, but her mind was whirling as she dropped off into a restless sleep.

She's starting to warm up to the boys, but she's super confused about their actions. We'll just have to see what comes next. I didn't plan on her meeting Dean like that in this chapter, but it happened.