Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. This is a work of fiction and no money is being made for my having written this piece.
The next morning (or evening), Castiel woke up on a green couch, his back stiff from the lumpy cushions he'd laid on. He was alone now which meant that the brothers had likely gone into their own bedrooms at some point to sleep too. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and decided to try and find out if there was a bathroom downstairs because he really needed to take a leak and soon.
He arrived at the first door he found and opened it to discover - a linen closet. The next door over revealed a closet full of board games.
"What the - ?"
The following door was locked which either meant it was one of the brother's rooms or it was a place where he or anyone wasn't allowed to go.
"So how long...?"
"Have we been 'Creatures of the Darkness'? What is it, Sammy? Going on two years?"
"Yeah, right after Dad..."
Castiel looked down at his feet and sighed. "Two weeks ago, I was coming home late from one of my night labs on campus. I was (he scratched behind his ear) going for my doctorate in medicine. Pediatrics. I was jumped at a bus stop - my usual stop and..."
"Cas?"
Castiel turned and Sam was standing in the doorway of what was no doubt his bedroom, his hair incredibly disorderly and he was yawning.
"Hello, Sam," Castiel said, now stepping away from the door he was trying to open. "I was wondering if there was a bathroom down here or do I need to go back upstairs to that one with the shower?"
"What?" Sam asked and then his brain slowly caught up with him. "Right. Um, we have bathrooms attached to our bedrooms down here. You can use the one in mine."
"Thank you."
Sam walked back into his own room and Castiel walked in behind him and stopped at the entrance. Sam's room looked...calm. The walls were painted a light, pale blue and there were a couple of photos hanging on the wall in frames. A couple with himself and Dean, a couple with an older man and himself and one single picture of a pretty blonde girl with long wavy hair and a wide smile. Castiel quickly got his business done and came back out to find Sam with his head face down on the pillow again.
"Sorry about my brother," Dean said from the doorway, scaring Castiel for a second. "He likes his sleep."
"Dean, please if you would..."
"Have a good sleep, Cas?" Dean asked while scratching his head. "Gotta be better than lying out in the street, right?"
"Despite your couch -"
"Hey, I picked out that beauty!"
"It was good," Castiel said with a calming sigh. "I haven't sleep that well in a long, long time. Thank you."
"Well good 'cause, if you want to, you can hangwithusfornow."
"Beg pardon?" Castiel asked, confused and leaning forward.
Dean sighed and looked at his sleeping brother for a second. He looked back at Castiel and said, "Stay with us, man. We'll keep an eye on each other. You're still new. Dangerous."
"I'm dangerous?"
"Frankly," Dean said, stepping away from the door and waiting for Castiel to follow, which he did after a second. "Frankly, I'm surprised that nothing in the papers said anyone is exsanguinated or dead if you were there for over a week."
Crossing his arms, Castiel asked in a low voice, "How do you know I don't know how to hide a body?"
"Pediatrics? Yeah, you know more than enough about body functions, I don't doubt."
"Some people are still trying to sleep," Sam called from his room.
"Yeah, yeah. Shut it, Sleeping Beauty."
"Dean," Castiel asked when they were a distance away, "why haven't I gone after anyone?"
They stopped once again in the living area with the couch and each took a seat on either end of it.
Leaning his head against the back cushion Castiel said quietly, "I can feel this - this dark energy in me, Dean. It's….how can you stand it?"
Dean frowned and looked up to the ceiling. "With new ones and their…blood lust. Damn it. Sammy and me – we haven't seen a lot of our kind since turning. Been avoiding them really. I never even saw one in person until I was, like, twenty-six. They were just, legends. Y'know, I always thought vamps were just extinct. Or really good at hiding."
"I'm guessing it's the latter."
"Well, my brother and me live in a basement. That alone..."
Castiel chuckled and sighed to himself.
"You okay now?" Dean asked, sounding hopeful.
"A little hungry."
Dean smacked Cas on the knee and got up. "Let's get a little breakfast then and we can talk a little more after."
Castiel nodded. "I'd like that."
A few hours later, after everyone had eaten and showered, the three of them were seated in front of the television when the doorbell upstairs rang.
"That'll be Bobby," Dean said, leaving the marathon of Doctor Sexy he'd forced them to watch so he could answer.
"Bobby?" Castiel asked.
"He's a friend of the family," Sam said, watching Castiel's reaction. "Sort of like an uncle."
They listened as Dean greeted the man ("How the hell are you, Old Man?" "Better'n you, Idjit.") and then Sam and Castiel stood as they came down the stairs.
Bobby was an older man. He looked kind, friendly as his eyes caught sight of Castiel's. He nodded his head to him and asked, "This the guy?"
"That's the one. Cas, come meet Bobby Singer - hunter extraordinaire."
Castiel came forwards and shook Bobby's extended hand.
"Pleasure to meet you, son."
Castiel instinctively stiffened and stuffed his hands into his pockets. His behavior did not go unnoticed by anyone and Bobby nodded before turning back to Dean.
"So, shall we all sit down and chat?"
"Yup."
Everyone returned to the couch, Bobby (after greeting Sam) took a seat in the La-Z-Boy recliner and it was then that Castiel noticed the shoulder bag slung over his body. From out of it, Bobby pulled a pad of paper and a pen. The paper already had a few notes written on it and from his vantage point Castiel could just make out his name and a few other little things.
"If you don't mind, Castiel, I have a few things I'd like for you to clarify if that's all right."
"Sure," Castiel murmured, eyeing the brothers before looking to their friend. Bobby started talking.
"Your full name is Christopher Castiel Novak and your birthdate is October 9, 1975."
"Castiel is your middle name?" Dean asked.
"It was unique," Castiel said, surprised, "How do you -?"
"You're from a suburb of Boston. Your mother's name is Patricia and your father's name is Charles. You have two older adopted siblings and then there's you."
"Yes," Castiel repeated. "How -?"
"You were studying pediatric medicine in downtown Lawrence, at Kansas University Medical Center before you disappeared for several days. The boys found you at the gas station in downtown Lebanon -"
"Stop!" Castiel said, finally putting his hands up and staring at everyone in the room. "How? How do you have all of this information already? I only just met Sam and Dean less than twelve hours ago."
"Well," Dean said, rubbing his hand against the back of his head, "after you fell asleep, we gave Bobby a ring, telling him that we had someone he needed to look into."
"You didn't believe me when I told you my story?" Castiel asked, a little hurt.
"Well, you've gotta see it from our side, Cas," Sam said, "We haven't run into a lot of our kind but there's always some kind of pattern. Some bloody trail that leads to them being caught and taken care of. But you. You, who claim to have not taken a life yet after more than a week after being turned? We needed to look a little deeper, just to see if things were, well, legit."
"Anything else, Bobby?" Dean asked.
Bobby rummaged around in his bag, putting the papers back inside. "We can do this another time, I suppose," he said with a sigh.
"All right then. Thanks for coming."
"Nothing better than driving out almost six hours for a fifteen minute visit. Where else do I have time to think?"
He nodded to the boys, looked pointedly to Castiel and then left up the stairs with Sam following him this time.
"Who was that man really?" Castiel asked.
"A friend from before," Dean said. "We stayed by his place after - after our dark time and he helped us through it. He's the one who supplies us, y'know."
"He smells of sadness and grief - let alone alcohol."
"He's a hunter so, naturally, it comes with the territory."
Puzzled, Castiel leaned his head slightly to the side and asked, "Hunter? What kind of hunter?"
Standing under the streetlamp across the street, a single figure watched as the elder hunter exited the house with a vampire following him close by.
"So, do you buy it?" the vampire asked.
The old man shrugged his shoulders and removed an internet article from his bag and handed it to him. He read through it quickly and looked up while trying to think of something to say.
"What I think is that, at the very beginning, a vampire needs to feed otherwise they don't stay a vamp for long. He fed. I just don't think he remembers it."
"Probably blocked it out." The vampire sighed and extended his hand to the hunter who shook it. "Stay safe, Bobby."
"You two as well."
"Three."
"You're intent on keeping him then?"
The vampire shrugged his shoulders and scratched the back of his head like a child unsure of if he's making the right choice but making it anyway.
"What can I say? We like the guy. There's something about him that just fits with our little group."
"I'm not going to try and talk you out of it, son. Keep an eye on him – you don't want him going out there and slaughtering a church or anything."
The two men shook hands and the figure under the streetlamp frowned and bit the inside of his cheek before vanishing as if he'd never been there to begin with.
More soon. Thanks for reading. Let me know if you like it.