Three Men an Angel and a Teenager – Part 8

Sam sat nervously watching the young angel as she sat cross-legged on Bobby's old sofa, her misery clear as she stared dejectedly at her hands. The occasional hiccupping sob breaking the silence as she attempted to hold back her tears. He glanced at Bobby, who returned his look with an answering shrug. It was clear that he knew as much about comforting a teenage girl as Sam did and despite Dean's insistence that Sam was a teenage girl, he didn't know squat about them either. So both hunters sat helpless in the strained silence, each wishing that Dean and Castiel would get their asses back upstairs. Although given the force with which Dean slammed the panic room door and the raised voices that echoed throughout the house, they may be some time.

"Mary, we haven't officially met." Bobby said, before standing and nervously running his sweating hands down the front of his jeans. Taking a step toward the young angel he held out his hand. "I'm Bobby...you probably already know that huh?"

Mary raised her head and brought her eyes up to meet the warm gaze of her Uncle Bobby, a sad smile forming on her tear stained face. "Yes..." she replied simply, uncertainty causing a tremble in her voice. Taking the offered hand she squeezed softly.

"You hungry, thirsty...not got much, I don't suppose you're allowed a whiskey?" Bobby asked gruffly, as he removed his ever present baseball cap to run a hand nervously through his thinning hair. Christ he just knew that that girls were trouble, give him boys and he'd know what to do, feed em, water them and a clip around the ear when needed, but girls cried and pouted and sulked. He was too old for that shit.

"No thanks, I'm fine."

"Well I need one, and we all need to eat. How about pizza?"

"Pizza'll be fine."

"Right then pizza it is."

Sam watched as Bobby quickly left the room and rushed out the front door, laughing "You know Mary, put Bobby in a house full of demons and he'd spit in the eye of every last one... I think you terrify him."

"Not just him?"

"Yeah, well you're a bit of a surprise."

"Congratulations it's a girl." Mary responded bitterly.

Sam could feel laughter bubbling up as he imagined a stork circling the Salvage Yard a full grown Mary cradled in a blanket. Realising that now may not be the best time to be joking around he stamped down the need to laugh.

"Mary, not that Cas hasn't busted your ass already but...your soul?" Sam asked softly, taking the opportunity to ask the question that had been running through his mind since the revelation that Mary had effectively hacked off a piece of her soul and gave it to him.

"I didn't really make a conscious decision to give you a piece of my soul... I" Mary replied, trailing off as she struggled to find the words to make her Uncle Sam... no Sam understand what had happened. She had to remember that they may look and talk like her family, but her dad, dammit Castiel had made it clear that they weren't they just had the potential to be. "I just knew what I had to do. You needed it so I gave it to you. I honestly don't know how I did it, I just did and I don't care what Castiel says if I get the chance I'm going to Hell to get yours back." She continued, belligerently.

Stunned by her response, although not by the tone, he expected that even teenage half angels could be rebellious. He didn't miss Mary's very obvious use of Castiel's name. In all the time that Castiel had been screaming at her downstairs she had referred to him as "daddy" but now she was referring to him as Castiel. Maybe not the best subject he thought not just because Mary was clearly very hurt by Castiel's reaction but if Castiel came back up and heard her talking about going to Hell then she may just get her butt kicked by her future dad because he was mighty pissed at her already, any word of Hell could be the proverbial straw.

"Mary, not that I don't appreciate what you did, but no going to Hell for me okay, we'll figure out how to get it back and fixed, but no just taking it upon yourself. Promise?"

Mary stared at Sam for the briefest moment before giving a slight nod, "I promise."

"That's good, now why don't you go get cleaned up and then we'll talk some more." Sam said with a grin "I'd like to hear about your mom, see if we can't figure out a way to get you back home."

"Cleaned up?" Mary looked down at herself, suddenly realising that she probably didn't look her best since she'd been asleep in her clothes for hours and given that she had been crying ... Blushing she thought for a moment, bringing an image of an outfit from home to mind, then clicked her fingers. Instantly she was cleaned up and wearing the outfit she had brought to mind, a simple white shirt and a pair of well worn jeans.

"Impressive." Sam said as Mary simply used her powers to change and clean up.

"I'm not really supposed to use my powers for things like that but whoever sent me here didn't send me with any luggage so..."

"Beats going shopping."

Mary looked at him aghast "Nothing beats going shopping... you do realise I'm a teenage girl?"

Laughing openly now Sam said "Okay nothing beats shopping..."

"Nothing." Mary insisted as her face split in a wide grin "nothing."

Sam felt himself grin back in response; she really did have an infectious grin. "Okay Mary since you're all cleaned up... why don't you tell me about your mom."

"My mom... my mom is the most beautiful person in heaven and earth..." glancing around the room, Mary's gaze was drawn to a picture sitting on the old mantel. Getting up she crossed the room and stopped in front of the lone picture drawing her finger down the dust covered print before picking it up "...she has hair which looks like warm chocolate and green eyes that shine so bright. She always see's the best in everyone and she loves completely."

Sam walked up behind Mary and stared at the picture in her hand. For as long as he could remember that picture had been sitting on Bobby's mantel. It was one of him and Dean and a young girl of about eight with a broken arm. Searching his memory he remembered that the picture had been taken when they had spent the summer with Bobby while their dad was away on a hunt. He'd never given much thought to the little girl, assuming that she was one of the girls from town that they had met that summer, now with Mary looking so intently at the picture he wasn't so sure.

"Mary, is that your mom? He asked shakily, could evidence of his sister have been here at Bobby's all this time?

"Yes, that's my mom, Haley... this picture, well not this one exactly a copy of it has always been hanging in the den. You and Dean had a copy made for her first Christmas back home."

Taking the picture, his hand trembling as he seriously considered for the first time that he had a sister and she'd been stolen from their lives. "Haley Winchester." Well that rolls off the tongue he thought.

"Mary?"

Startled, Mary turned from the mantel to face Castiel, who was standing by the door with Dean by his side. Her expression turned cold as she asked "What do you want?"

"I wish to speak with you. It is of import."

"Well I don't want to speak with you Castiel."

Dean blanched at Mary's tone and use of Castiel's name rather than "dad" or "daddy" as she had been doing since she arrived. This is not going to be easy he thought Good luck Cas!

"Mary, maybe you should speak with your dad?" Dean said as he shoved Castiel lightly into the room.

Mary frowned, her lips turned down unhappily "He's not my dad... yet!" she responded, firing back the words spoken so harshly by Castiel just a short while before.

"Mary..." Castiel tried again.

This time Mary resolutely turned her back on Castiel and stared blankly at the mantel.

Dean caught Sam's eye and jerked his head in the direction of the kitchen "Sammy, let's leave the children to talk shall we?"

"Dean...I don't think"

"Sammy I wasn't giving you a choice."

Shaking his head Sam followed Dean to the kitchen, leaving Castiel and Mary alone in the study. Entering the kitchen he couldn't help but throw a concerned look back towards the study "Do you think they'll be okay?"

"Sammy, I know that you have part of a teenage girl inside you, but you do know that you're not a teenage girl right?" Dean replied then grinned as Sam glared at him.

"Dean..." Sam growled in warning, as his brother simply leant against the kitchen counter, arms crossed and grinning like a loon.

"Oh don't get your panties in a bunch Samantha." Dean said as he straightened and took a seat at the kitchen table. "Cas'll need to work that out himself because as of now Mary is not our biggest problem."

xxOOxx

Castiel stood staring at Mary as she refused to turn and look at him; he may be an experienced soldier fighting a war but he knew nothing about children. How did you get a teenage girl to talk to you when she stubbornly refused to even look at you?

"Mary...I am sorry I did not mean to hurt you." Castiel said as he walked further into the room and stood directly behind Mary. He could see the white of her knuckles as she gripped the edge of the picture that she held in her hands.

Sighing deeply, Mary turned to Castiel, the anger from moments before simply evaporating from her expression "Don't be... it's not your fault. You're right you're not my dad. It was unfair of me to treat you as if you were. To you I'm a stranger who just happens to share your DNA."

"I am sorry I do not know how to be a father."

"Well take it from me you have great potential" Mary said with a small smile "... my dad is the best dad a girl could want."

"Thank you." Castiel said softly, surprised by how much he wanted to be that for her. He knew what it was like to live with an absent father, one who had said clearly that he didn't want to anything to do with his children "deadbeat dad" Dean had called it. If they couldn't get Mary back to her own time then he would need to be the father she needed, not someone who simply shared her DNA. She needed to know that she wouldn't be alone that they would be a family. There was no doubt in his mind that Dean, Sam and Bobby would accept nothing less, she was a Winchester after all. "Mary I will do all that I can to ensure that you get home to your family but... I fear that my actions in this time will make it impossible for me to put things right."

"I don't understand." Mary said confused "Does this have anything to do with the fighting in Heaven?"

Castiel stared at Mary, head inclined slightly as he considered how much he should tell her. He knew that Dean was at this very moment filling Sam in on his deal with Crowley and the truth about Purgatory and would do the same with Bobby when he returned. "Yes, we are at war. Raphael wishes to restart the apocalypse and there are those of us who do not wish that to happen..."

"So you and the other angels are fighting Raphael and his followers?"

"Yes, but the battle is not going well..." Sighing Castiel sat on the edge of the sofa, indicating that she should sit beside him "perhaps I should start from the beginning?"

Mary listened quietly as Castiel spoke of the war in Heaven, his deal with Crowley and how he had brought Sam back from the Cage soulless, although he stressed that he was unaware for some time that Sam's soul was still in the Cage. Through it all she could see how alone he was in this time, he'd become isolated from his friends here on Earth in an attempt to keep them safe and to protect the sacrifice that they had all made. Her heart broke with each word that passed his lips; he may not be her father in this time, but in her mind she loved him no less. All she saw was the person whom she idolised lost and in need help.

When he had finished talking Castiel raised his eyes and met crystal blue eyes identical to his own and was surprised to see compassion and concern in there depths and not disgust and disappointment.

Reaching out, Mary placed her tiny hand in Castiel's and squeezed softly "I'd like to help, another angel on your side ...Gotta be a good thing right?"

"Thank you Mary but no, it is imperative that Raphael does not become aware of your true identity or of the future that you represent." Castiel replied sternly "You must stay out of this war."

"But..."

"No Mary we will work together to get you home, but you will not become involved in this war." Castiel insisted as Mary began to argue. "You must give your word."

Mary thought for a moment before nodding "Okay, I agree but only because I know if I get back home then all of this will be wiped out...because in my time there is only peace in Heaven." Grinning suddenly she asked "Do you have a phone?"

"Yes." Castiel replied curiously, surprised by the change of subject.

"May I borrow it?"

Castiel retrieve his phone from his pocket and handed it to Mary, eyes never leaving her as she dialled. He heard the phone ring for a minute before connecting.

Looking at Castiel, her eyes shone brightly "Hello...I'd like to speak with Haley O'Donnell."

TBC Thanks for reading as always reviews are appreciated :-)