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Chapter name borrowed from Necrophagia.

CHAPTER SEVEN- EMBALMED, YET I BREATHE

Castiel's voice partially roused me, but I kept my eyes closed.

"Is this normal?"

He sounded slightly discomfited, and I sleepily wondered what had broken through his impassive exterior.

Dean sniggered. "Ask her when she wakes up, Feathers."

Sam hid his amusement unsuccessfully.

"Push her off if you're uncomfortable, Castiel."

I finally opened my eyes to see what the fuss was about, and promptly turned scarlet.

Somewhere along the line, my head had landed on Castiel's shoulder.

I pulled away at once.

"Sorry," I stammered shamefacedly.

For an angel who didn't understand human customs, he was quite calm.

"It is not of import."

"Look at her face!" Dean said gleefully. "It's like a tomato!"

Sam looked at me apologetically as Dean burst into song.

"Odette and Castiel, sitting in a tree, K- I- S- S -I -N- G!"

I hid my face in the upholstery.

~Supernatural~

Sam pulled a set of dogtags out of his pocket, kneeling at his mother's headstone.

"I think, um, I think Dad would have wanted you to have these."

He buried them into the ground.

"I love you, Mom."

I cringed, backing away from Sam, trying to block out the memories.

Castiel looked my way, and I froze.

He saw too much.

I glanced at Dean, frowning next to a dying tree.

He moved to it, seeing a perfect circle of dead grass surrounding the grave.

Later, Dean took a card from a man in a suit, walking over to us.

"Angela Mason. She was a student at the local college, funeral was three days ago."

"And?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"And? You saw her grave," Dean pointed to it.

"Everything dead around it, in a perfect circle? You don't think that's a little weird?"

"Maybe the groundskeeper went a little agro with the pesticide," Sam said doubtfully.

"No, I asked him," Dean looked at the grave edgily.

"No pesticide, no chemicals. Nobody can explain it."

"Okay, so what are you thinking?" Sam waited expectantly.

"I dunno," Dean shrugged. "Unholy ground, maybe?"

Castiel looked slightly amused.

"Un-"

"What?" Dean ignored Sam. "If something evil happened there, it could easily poison the ground. Remember the farm outside of Cedar Rapids?"

"Yeah, b-"

Dean cut him off.

"Could be the sign of a demonic presence. Or the Angela girl's spirit, if it's powerful enough."

Sam nodded, turning away.

"Well, don't get to excited," Dean sniped. "You might pull something."

"It's just…." Sam looked uncertain.

"Stumbling onto a hunt? Here, of all places?"

"So?"

"So?" Sam scuffed the heel of his shoe into the ground.

"Are you sure this is about a hunt, and not about something else?"

"What else would it be about?"

Dean looked close to getting angry, and I decided to intervene.

"Dean, maybe you-"

He interrupted me.

"Just stop, okay? It's none of your damn business! Leave me alone!"

I flinched away.

Dean ignored me.

"You believe what you want, Sam, but I let you drag my ass out here, the least we could do is check this out."

~Supernatural~

We knocked on the door of Dr. Mason's office.

He stepped out, looking at us curiously.

"Dr. Mason?"

"Yes?"

Sam stepped forward.

"I'm Sam, this is Dean and Odette. We were friends of Angela's, we….. we wanted to offer our condolences."

"Please, come in."

We entered the somber room, and Dr. Mason showed us a photo album.

In the corner, Dean looked through an old book.

"She was beautiful," Sam hooked a finger around a page.

"Yes, she was."

"This is an unusual book," Dean showed the cover of the copy he'd been reading.

It was covered with Greek letters and a triangular symbol.

"It's Ancient Greek, I teach a course," Dr. Mason said wearily.

"So, a car accident," Dean blinked. "That's, that's horrible."

"Angie was only a mile away from home when, uh," Dr. Mason trailed off.

"It's gotta be hard, losing someone like that. Sometimes it's like they're still around. Almost like you can still sense their presence."

We both looked up at Dean.

"You ever feel anything like that?"

Dr. Mason eyed him oddly.

"I do, as a matter of fact."

Sam glanced pointedly at Dean.

"That's perfectly normal, Dr. Mason. Especially with what you're going through."

He sighed.

"You know, I still phone her. And the phone's still ringing before I remember that…uh…. family's everything, you know? Angie was the most important thing in my life. And now, I'm just lost without her."

"We're very sorry," I told him.

~Supernatural~

"I'm telling you, there's something going on here," Dean insisted.

"We just haven't found it yet."

Sam sighed.

"Dean, so far, you've got a patch of dead grass and nothing."

Dean glared at him.

"Well, something turned that grave into unholy ground."

Sam rolled his eyes.

"There's no reason for it to be unholy ground. Angela Mason was a nice girl who died in a car crash, that's not exactly vengeful spirit material. You heard her father."

"Yeah, well, maybe daddy doesn't know everything there is to know about his little angel, huh?"

"You know what?" Sam stood up.

"We never should have bothered that poor man. We shouldn't even be here anymore."

"So what, Sam?" Dean demanded. "We just bail? Without even figuring out what's going on?"

They looked at me, almost as if for a third opinion.

I shrugged.

"It's not my business, I guess," I avoided Dean's gaze.

He might have looked guilty, but it was probably my imagination.

Sam frowned at him.

"I think I know what's going on here. It's the only reason I went along with you this far."

Dean's eyebrow climbed upwards.

"What are you talking about?"

"This is about Mom's grave," Sam crossed his arms.

Dean scoffed. "That's got nothing to do with it."

Sam scowled.

"You wouldn't step within a hundred yards of it. Look. Maybe you're imagining a hunt where there isn't one so you don't have to think about Mom. Or Dad."

Dean turned to look at him.

"You wanna take another swing?" Sam held out his arms. "Go ahead, if it'll make you feel better."

"I don't need this crap," Dean snarled, grabbing his jacket and keys.

"Where are you going?"

Dean did not look back.

"I'm going to go get a drink. Alone."

The door banged shut behind him.

~Supernatural~

"Okay," Dean glowered at Sam. "I was working my imaginary case. Didn't find much."

Sam nodded, unsurprised.

"Yeah. Except Angela's boyfriend died last night. Slit his own throat. But, you know, that's normal. Uh, let's see, what else. Oh, he was seeing Angela everywhere before he died. But you know, I'm sure that's just me transferring my own feelings."

Sam held up a hand.

"Okay, I get it. I'm sorry, maybe there is something going on here."

"Maybe?" Dean snapped. "I know how to do my job, Sam, despite what you might think."

…

"You should be with them right now."

I turned around to look at Castiel wordlessly.

"You made a promise."

I laughed bitterly.

"How am I supposed to do that when Dean doesn't even like me, Castiel? Let alone trust me."

I looked away from him.

"I don't blame him. Maybe it's better if I just go."

I curled up on the bed.

The bedsprings squeaked as Castiel sat down some distance away from me.

I glanced up as a thought struck me.

"If I go, Castiel, will you be here?"

His eyes seemed a fraction warmer.

"I won't leave, Odette."

My lips tugged upward slightly.

"Thanks, Castiel."

~Supernatural~

Dean and Sam dug up Angela's grave.

Standing on the coffin, Dean cleared the rest of the dirt off and turned to Sam.

"Ladies first."

I huffed, slightly annoyed.

Sam tossed his flashlight to Dean.

He opened the coffin, wincing in preparation.

It was empty.