10
When my eyes opened to the dark room, I sighed and rolled over to look at the clock. I had been tired last night and wanted nothing more than a good night's sleep. Five. Great. I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up. It was too early for me to be up, but there was no turning back now. I turned on the lamp beside me and sighed.
I took out a fresh set of clothes and headed for the shower. Once I was clean and my hair was done, the sky was starting to turn to a dark blue. The sun wasn't far away.
Back in my room I saw that I'd left my note and feather out. I slipped them back in the box when I noticed an odd tangle of vegetation on my pillow. I inspected it to find three different types of flowers, weaved together. The main one was a thick stem of a small rose looking plant with thin thorns along the stem. The flowers themselves were a delicate light pink that faded to white around the yellow center. Around that one was a small grouping of white jasmine. They were simple but pretty. And tied around them was a single strand of a small yellow flower whose bloom shrunk as the stem grew, leaving only buds at the tip. It was a small but colorful arrangement, but who was it from? Castiel maybe?
I looked them over for a sign of who they were from, but nothing came to me. Then I looked at where I'd found them, right where I'd found the feather. Gabriel had sent them. Odd flowers from an angel, I thought. Then it came to me. Each flower had a different meaning. It was a message. I had little memory of meanings of flowers, so I'd have to look them up.
Out in the kitchen I made a pot of coffee then stood on the small back deck where I enjoyed the cup as the first lights of morning sprang across the sky. The warm liquid in my hands warmed me up from the slight chill in the breeze of a departing storm. Once the cup was empty, I headed back inside to start breakfast.
Today was going to be breakfast sandwiches. Bread in the toaster and bacon frying in a pan on the gas stove sent a delicious scent into the air. I hoped that it alone would get the boys up. Next I moved onto the eggs which I scrambled and mixed with cheese before turning them over into a small omelet. When three were done I took the toast and buttered it then put an omelet on each set with two strips of bacon. When they were done, I set the table and was greeted by a yawning Sam.
"Mornin'." I said sitting down.
"Morning." He grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to his plate.
"Dean up?"
"Yeah," another yawn. "Looks great, thanks Satine."
"No problem."
"God, I can smell it in bed." Dean sauntered out and sat down. "So good." he said after one mouthful.
"Good." I was just about done with mine already. Mother used to make these for us when we were little so I'd had the system down to the T. Uncle Fisher had made the same thing.
"Satine, I don't know how we lived without you."
"You lived off of burgers and pancakes, I'm assuming."
"Got that right." Sam laughed.
When we finished, Sam did the dishes and I brought out the flowers from my room. "Mind if I use your laptop?"
"Sure." I popped it open and typed in the descriptions of the flowers and found out the yellow one was agrimonia, the pink one was sweetbrier, and I was correct that the last was jasmine. Next was find out meanings. Sweetbrier came up quickly as a flower of sympathy. Agrimonia was next with the meaning of thankfulness. But because jasmine was such a common flower, it had thousands of different meanings, many of them valid.
"Hey, you guys know lore, right?"
"Yeah," Sam answered, drying his hands on a kitchen towel.
"What does jasmine symbolize?"
"Depends, what color?"
"White."
"Normally it means love, but there are a lot of different meanings for jasmine."
"Yeah, love doesn't make sense." I said and sat back in the chair, stumped. Well, there went that idea. I guess I'd just have to ask him next time he decided to poof me into a dream.
"Why, what are you looking for?"
"Just for notes." I said and headed back to my room. In my bag I pulled out a note book and pen then wrote down the date and listed the flowers and their meanings, then next to them, I wrote down where I'd found them. A few lines down I noted the odd occurrence of the angel in my dream and his proposal then the feather. I was going to pay close attention to any angel interaction, needing to better understand why things were suddenly taking interest in me.
"So any plans for today?" I asked Dean who'd just gotten out of the shower and was hovering over the table in the kitchen.
"Yeah, you."
"Me?"
"Deals a deal. You're getting some training." This I was very excited about. Now I could start my preparations on demon hunting.
"Sweet. When do we start?"
"Right now." he said then threw an empty cup at me that I dodged just in time. "Good, you gotta be ready for thing like that."
"Like flying cups?"
"Yeah, laugh it up, but when it's a knife coming towards your face, it loses the hilarity. Come with me outside. We're practicing shooting." I followed him outside where he had a sand bag leaned up against a tree with a target on it. "Okay, we'll start with this." He handed me a shotgun. "Stand here, put the butt of the rifle in your armpit and aim for the center." I did like he said, stood about twenty feet away then held up the gun. "Don't pull the trigger until you're ready. The safety is off now."
I aimed the gun at towards the sand bag and braced myself for the recoil before pulling the trigger. The gun sent of a powerful recoil that I quickly regained my balance from then looked at my mark. I'd hit the tree, nowhere near the target. Damn.
"It's a good start. Try again."
I slightly spread my legs apart this time before taking aim to better me for the recoil. I aimed the gun a little lower this time then took in a deep breath before pulling the trigger. The recoil wasn't as bad this time and I faltered a lot less. When I looked at my shot, I smiled.
"Beginner's luck." Dean said before motioning me to try again. I'd hit dead center of the target. I took the same stance and took in a deep breath then pulled the trigger again. Hitting the target in the same spot, I looked at Dean, ready to move on.
"Alright, Lone Ranger, try this one." He handed me a pistol with a while polished handle. "Less of a recoil on this one, but handguns are less accurate. Empty the clip."
Six shots later I looked back up at Dean. "Like I said less accurate. We'll have to work on hitting your target." No new holes were made in the sandbag.
"I did hit my target." I said with a smile.
Dean took another looked at the target then got a closer look. "What are ya talking about?" he looked back over at me then I nodded past the tree to an old beer can that was about another five feet behind the tree and had been blown to bits.
"We should skip the gun lesson. My brother beat you to that one."
"Brother?"
"Yeah, Jim had fought in Iraq and I was given a few lessons on guns." I gave the gun back to Dean who was speechless. "Moving on." I said.
"Well, I kinda figured we'd do guns all day. Sam was going to teach you about things to ward away demons, but I can see if he'd ready now."
"Okay." I followed him back inside and decided to make myself a sandwich while I waited.
"Sorry, guess we didn't expect you to have guns down already." Sam said, carrying his laptop with him from the other room. He sat it down on the table and turned it towards me. "We can start with the basics, salt, holy water, iron, things like that." He went on about how salt could be used to create a burier between us and demons or spirits. Next was holy water and the effect it had on most supernatural beings. Iron was used on ghosts to ward them away and how other beings had reactions to it and silver. Next we moved on to demon traps that could hold demons within them and give us a chance to exerciser them. Different sigils were used to trap some spirits and others bound buildings to keep angles, demons, and spirits away.
It was a lot of information to learn but I caught on pretty quickly.
Finally when Sam said we were done for the night, Dean came out with the leather bound book that he'd been going through the night Castiel had brought me to them.
"This was our father's journal. Everything we know about everything we know about is in here." Dean said, holding the book out. When I reached for it, he slightly pulled back then said, "Don't lose it." I could see the connection he had with this book. It must have been very important to his father too.
"Thank you. I won't."
Now that it was dark out, I started dinner of fried chicken, boiled potatoes, and canned corn. Dinner was served by seven and we sat down. The boys were excited again by dinner. Home cooked meals must not have been what they grew up on or something. I wasn't that great of a cook, but everything that I'd made so far seemed to bring tears to their eyes.
Dinner and dishes were done then we sat down to a show that we'd watched for three almost three days now, Scrubs. Yeah they were all reruns but all three of us enjoyed them.
The rest of the pie was finished this time, I couldn't believe that it had lasted this long actually. Once that was all done, I got kind of bored of crap T.V., but to my surprise, Sam was the first one to go to bed tonight.
"Big baby." Dean called after him.
"Yeah, good night to you too." Sam called behind him.
"No Castiel today?" I asked.
"Guess, not. He's been around a lot more then he normally does. He's been acting kind of weird lately."
I turned to Dean. "Has he?"
"Well, just a little." he said with a stupid grin.
"If you say so." That's when I began to wonder if some how Dean found out about me and Castiel from last night. The door had been closed, so the only way he would have would have been if Castiel had told him. But Castiel, didn't seem like he'd spill. Then I thought, no, Dean doesn't know. He would have said something a long time ago if he did.
"Dean, do you know any angels other than Castiel?" I asked randomly.
"Well, yeah. Sam and I knew a fair share of angels."
"Like who?"
"We knew, Lucifer, Micheal, Rafael, this rich boy, Balthazar, Samandriel, and Gabriel."
"You lost contact with them?"
"Most of them are dead. Lucifer and Micheal are locked in hell right now, but the rest of them are dead."
"I didn't know angels could die."
"Everything can die."
"Even gods?"
"Death told me that even god will die."
"Hold on, Death, as in the grim reaper?"
"No those are different. Death is just his own thing."
"Oh my god." I said to myself. There was so much more other there then I could have imagined. It was almost ridiculous. "Then, on that note, I'm going to bed. Gotta let everything sink in."
"You alright?" he asked, sitting forward in his seat.
"Yeah,"
"Satine?"
"Really Dean, I'm fine." I gave him a small smile to reassure him. I was fine, for once. Everything was moving on and I was alright now. "Goodnight." I said, ruffling his hair as I walked by.
"Goodnight, Satine." I could hear him say quietly as I walked to my room. I got changed and washed up in the bathroom then headed back to my bedroom. I looked at the journal on the table beside the bed then headed back to the living room.
"Dean?"
"Yeah,"
"What was your dad's name?"
"John, why?" he looked over his shoulder at me.
"Just asking."
"Something up?"
"No," I smiled, "Goodnight." Back in my room I took another look at John's journal then went to my notes. Jasmine. It was odd to think I'd be getting messages from a dead angel through flowers. Tomorrow I'd go through John's book and see if he had anything on flowers. It wasn't likely but it was worth a shot.
I laid down and turned the light off. After I had been still in bed for a while, I could hear the creaking of floor boards.
"I was wondering when you pop in." I said to the darkness. "I was starting to miss you." I held out my hand from under the blankets. Soon it was gently grasped and I could feel a thumb rubbing across my knuckles. Then I pulled on the hand and scooted over in the bed so that I was pressed up against the wall.
Once we were both settled in the bed I rolled over so that I was facing him. I could make out the outline of his face in the moonlight coming in through the window. "Where were you?" I asked quietly.
"Heaven. They called me to fix something."
"Is everything better now?"
"It was just a misunderstanding."
"Good. Glad to hear."
He rolled over onto his side so that he was facing me then asked, "What did you do today?" It sounded funny coming from him, such a normal question.
"Made breakfast sandwiches, practiced shooting with Dean, then Sam and I studied sigils, then it was dinner time."
"What did you make?"
"Hmm, fried chicken, boiled potatoes, and corn. What's with all the questions tonight?"
"Is that not what you normally do? Ask people how their day was, what they did?"
"Yeah, I guess it is." I yawned.
"Sleep, Satine." he breathed heavily through his nose. "I'll watch over you." It felt like he'd done that almost every night that I'd been with them, and so far, they were some of the best nights of sleep I'd ever had.
"Goodnight, Castiel." I said, kissing him then rolling onto my other side. Before I was fully asleep, I could feel him creeping closer on top of the blankets. I could feel his warmth on the back of my neck and I smiled.