Chapter 4 – An Angel by any other Name
The girl sat on the railing of a bridge, behind her she could hear the noises from the few cars that passed by, but she didn't care about them. She stared down into the deep blue river, deeply lost in her thoughts.
"Please don't jump", a deep voice suddenly called out to her.
Yanked out of her reverie the girl jumped up a little and nearly fell. She caught herself in time and turned slightly towards the man behind her. Worry was plainly on his face and one of his hands was outstretched as if he wanted to catch her.
"Geez. Where did you come from?", the girl replied, still clutching the railing.
"I did not mean to startle you. My apologies", he sincerely told her, the worry in his eyes changing to shame.
"It's all right. Nothing happened", she accepted with a smile.
He seemed like someone, who was genuinely concerned, so she didn't mind his sudden appearance. Then she remembered something and craned her neck to look behind him on the street. No car was on the road and the walkway was empty as well.
"What is it?", he asked, his voice a mixture of concern and irritation.
"Nothing. It just sounded like there were birds fighting, but I can't see any", she explained with a shrug.
"Oh. That was probably me", the man replied after a moment of thought.
"You?", she wondered, by now turned towards him, her feet still dangling above the abyss.
"Yes. My wings might have sounded to you, as if birds were nearby. I always wondered why that is, though", he explained and looked aside mid-sentence, as if the distance could give him an answer to his question.
"Your wings?", the girl wanted to know, now quite confused.
"Yes, my wings. I am an Angel of the Lord. My name is Castiel and I would like you to not jump from this bridge", the man – Angel – introduced himself properly and pointed towards the river.
"Oh! I'm not going to jump! I just like to sit here and think!", she exclaimed and threw her legs over the railing, now sitting with her back towards the water.
She felt stupid for making him think, she wanted to jump, so what he'd just told her was for the moment forgotten.
"But you just thought about jumping, its consequences and then asked for help", he told her flatly, but to her it sounded as if he'd only read into the situation and not read her mind or heard her prayers.
"I...maybe", she admitted and looked unto the pavement, before she jerked up her head and nearly yelled at him: "But I wouldn't have followed through!"
Thoughts of hope and disappointment and guilt and other emotions rushed through her head. She didn't knew this stranger, yet she felt protected in his presence.
"Thanks for checking on me, anyway", she told him after a moment of just trying to find the right words.
"You're welcome", he simply replied, the hue of a smile on his lips.
"Shall I get you ice cream and we talk about those thoughts?", he offered, holding out his hand to help her down the railing.
"That is not necessary, but thank you", she declined, shaking her head.
"I insist", he told her more sternly, nodding his head towards his hand.
"All right. Seems like you wont leave me a choice anyway", she gave in with a sigh.
When she got up she didn't took the offered hand and simply pushed away from the railing and landed on her feet. Castiel made a step backwards to give her some space and she turned to lead the way towards the ice cream parlor. They walked in silence for a moment until she suddenly stopped.
"Wait a minute", she exclaimed, holding out her arm to stop him as well, but he walked right into it.
Irritated by the barrier Castiel looked first at the arm and then towards her.
"You're an Angel and your name is Castiel?", she asked him over her shoulder.
"Yes and yes", he confirmed with a nod at each 'yes'.
She turned around completely and looked him up and down. He wore a suit and a simple trench coat, nothing about him seemed quite angelic to her, then another thought came to her mind.
"Huh, that means Edlund didn't just make that name up and there is actually an Angel named Castiel?!", she half wondered, half asked.
"You mean the Supernatural books?", Castiel wanted to clarify.
"Yeah?", she affirmed, surprised he knew what she was taling about.
"Oh. That is me he is writing about", Castiel confirmed after a moment in a matter of fact tone.
"You?!", she asked in confusion, pointing at him.
"Yes, me", Castiel confirmed again.
She looked at him for another moment then suddenly turned around, declaring: "Yeah. Definitely ice cream! And explanations!"
Author's Note: And here is the next Chance Meeting, I hope you liked it.
I'm not entirely satisfied with the title, but I think it's a fun pun (working title was Heavenly Help), but the kind of joke of this was, that there is an Angel called Castiel, so the other one was used instead.
Anyway, if you're wondering why he just randomly turns up here: I consider Cas to be the kind of person/Angel to check on random strangers whose worrisome thoughts he catches through prayers, when he's not helping out the Winchesters. And obviously this takes place before his poor wings are totally messed up...
As I'm busy over the weekend (Timelash, yay!) there wont be any new Chapters for any of my stories until (at least) next week. Sorry, but you'll have to wait a little bit more. =(
