Once they had deemed that most of the other couples had returned to their respective rooms, they all retired to Sam and Castiel's to work out the case. Charlie immediately made her way to the minibar, pouring out complex drinks for the group while Castiel watched in fascination.
"Have you ever even had a Jack and Coke, Cas?" She asked him, pouring something green into the tumbler of alcoholic coma she was concocting.
"No." He replied seriously.
"We don't water down our whiskey, Charlie." Dean said, making his way around the minibar and pulling out a tiny bottle of Jack Daniels the same size as the miniature shampoos these places always had for guests. He proceeded to down the entire bottle, as if to prove a point.
Sam joined them by Cas on the other side of the bar, sliding onto a barstool and not even having to hop up to sit on it. Next to him, Cas hopped up on the other stool, making Dean grin. He meant to share the amusement with his brother, but found his face already in a scowl.
"What?"
"Do you really think getting drunk is a good idea? We haven't even started working the case." Sam continued to glare at him and it just made Dean scrunch his face in irritation.
"I'm not getting drunk! I had one tiny tiny tiny drink! So tiny, it was almost ridiculous!" Dean defended himself, holding up the empty bottle and shaking it as if that somehow proved it's tinyness.
"And that's all you planned to drink?"
"Jesus Christ, Sam! What are you, my mother?" He noticed the slight flinch in the angel and immediately apologized. "Sorry, Cas."
"It's fine. I'm becoming quite accustomed to your constant blasphemy." The angel remarked, staring in amazement at the teal drink that Charlie was now pouring from the tumbler into the two glasses that were provided. She looked around and found two coffee cups near the coffee maker and filled those too.
"We'll have to bring our own glasses next time." She said, handing Dean one of the mugs before pushing the two glasses across the bar toward the rooms occupants and picking up the other mug for herself. "Drink up!"
Dean took a small sip from his glass, expecting something ridiculously sweet and maybe even really terrible as Charlie had been seemingly just pouring some of everything into the tumbler. He was pleasantly surprised as the mellow flavor washed over his tongue, not at all traumatizing his taste buds.
"This is actually pretty good!" He even let his surprise be heard in his voice, glancing at his brother and Cas to see how they felt about it. Sam had his eyebrows raised as he looked at the oddly colored drink. Castiel's glass was already empty. Charlie just grinned back at him.
"Cas! Geeze! Did you see how much booze was in that?" Dean reacted instinctively.
"Dean, it will take much more than that to get me intoxicated." The comment was accompanied by the sarcastic smirk that Cas had recently adopted that made Dean's insides twist.
"What's in this Charlie?" Sam asked, distracting Dean from his staring contest with Castiel's lips.
"Whiskey, and some other good things." Charlie said, grinning at Dean. "To water down the whiskey, you know."
"Ha ha." Dean grumbled, taking another sip of the colorful liquid. He was surprised again at the taste. "But seriously guys. We need to work out some of the details of this case, before Cas gets too drunk to be any help." He grinned sideways at the angel who just huffed out an amused breath.
"From what I can tell, the chances are fairly high that this is just a haunting of some sort." Sam was immediately all business and abandoned his drink in favor of wandering off in search of his laptop. Dean hopped into his seat as soon as it was vacant.
Returning to the bar, Sam shot a glare at his brother and moved to the other end to set up his laptop. "The biggest problem is that I can't find any evidence of anything ever happening in this hotel that would point to a vengeful spirit."
"Even so, what's with all the backup? It's just a salt and burn, once you figure out who it is. Why are there four of us here?" Charlie asked, completely reasonably.
"The thing is, we can't really figure out the ghost's M.O., if it is a ghost. None of the victims seemed to have anything in common. They didn't even stay at the same room while they were here. All different ages, races, sexes, and even occupations. I could not find one thing that they all fit."
"And that means…." Charlie raised an eyebrow at them as she poured the rest of her drink into Castiel's glass, which he promptly swallowed.
"That means we don't have any idea, when, where, or who the ghost might go after. Which means we have over twenty people at a time that we are supposed to be looking out for." Dean told her, raising his eyebrow as Cas slid Sam's half empty glass closer to himself before downing that one as well.
"I guess Cas really is getting wasted!" Charlie exclaimed excitedly, dropping back behind the bar with the tumbler in hand, presumably to make more of the beverage that had sparked Castiel's interest. Sam's look of disapproval over the top of his laptop made Dean grin.
"Let the guy have a little fun, Sam! Geeze. Is this what it's going to be like when you guys get married?" Dean joked, a dagger shooting through his heart when Sam smirked at him. The glow of the laptop screen made the smirk look evil.
They decided that if they did the old divide and conquer they could interview the entirety of the staff the next day. They would hopefully have enough information to be able to actually work the case.
Charlie had made another tumbler of the teal concoction, and Castiel had managed to convince Dean to go get the cooler out of the car so the brothers could drink beer. He would only have to share with Charlie. Dean noticed that she hadn't taken much for herself, and Cas drank almost the entirety of the tumbler. He was amused to note a pink tinge to his cheeks.
"Exactly how many shots were in that drink Charlie?" He asked the redhead who was staring at the angel in fascination.
"A lot." She shot a grin at Dean. "How much booze can this guy consume?"
"You read the books. The only time we've ever seen him really drunk, he drank the whole liquor store." Dean grinned back at her.
"You are aware that I am sitting within earshot, correct? There is no need to talk to about me as if I am not even here." Castiel's grumpy retort came with a grumpy face that was really more adorable than anything else.
"Sorry Cas." They said at the same time.
Sam sighed from his place seated on the bed. "I still haven't found anything incriminating about this place or the property." He rubbed at his eyes and closed the laptop. "It's past midnight, guys. I think it's about time we all hit the hay. I think breakfast is at seven, so we should probably try to get some sleep in."
Dean groaned, hearing Charlie copy the sentiment. They were getting Cas drunk! And Sam was ruining all their fun.
"Come along, darling. We can tell when we're unwanted!" Dean looped his arm through Charlie's and they both raised their noses into the air, huffing as they stomped toward the door. On the way out they heard Cas drunkenly question Sam.
"Why would we be hitting any hay?"
As the door closed behind them, they both cracked up. The angel was a source of constant amusement.
Six hours of sleep and a shower later and Dean felt like a new man. As much as he had complained about having to share the bed with Charlie, it had obviously had a fantastic effect on his sleeping patterns. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept for six hours straight. Thankfully Charlie was also used to sleeping alone and they had both kept to their own sides of the bed too.
They headed down to breakfast together, once again arm in arm. They joked on the way about Cas getting drunk and the hangover the angel was likely to have had in the morning. They arrived in the conference room at exactly seven, and were surprised to see Castiel seated at the same table and in the same chair as he had been the night before. He was the only one in the room.
"How are you feeling this morning, Cas?" Dean asked, claiming the seat next to the angel. Charlie plopped into the seat on the other side of him.
"Fine." Castiel looked up and smiled at the new additions to his table. His hands were wrapped firmly around a steaming cup of coffee.
"None of the after-effects of drinking?" Charlie asked with genuine curiosity.
"I did have a bit of a headache this morning." He admitted with a little bit of a blush. Like he was embarrassed of his weakness. "Sam gave me some pain medication and made me drink three glasses of water. I feel much better now."
"Speaking of Samantha, where is he?" Dean looked around the room as if his brother could be hiding under one of the tablecloths.
"He's in the shower. He went for a run earlier this morning. He should be here soon."
Dean scrunched up his face in distaste. "So you came down here alone?" The look he received for the question clearly said he was the biggest idiot on the planet.
"Yes." And then Castiel went back to sipping at his coffee.
"I thought breakfast was at seven. Where is all the food?" Charlie successfully changed the subject, drawing the attention of both men.
"Yeah, what the hell? Don't tell me I woke up early for nothin'." Dean glared around the room again, willing food to appear on the long tables. As soon as his eyes swung back to the entryway, two of the men employed by the hotel pushed a pair of carts into the room. They were covered completely with breakfast foods. The smell of the food wafted in their direction and Dean's stomach rumbled loudly in response. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Castiel shoot him an amused glance.
Dean drooled as he watched the men unload their carts onto the tables. Everything he had ever dreamed of having for breakfast was laid out like a feast just for him. Especially if he was the first one to get to those tables. He saw Charlie stand and he shot out of his own chair. Before he knew it they were racing to the tables. She laughed as he almost tripped over one of the chair legs that was sticking out farther than the others. He then got to laugh at her when she turned to grin at him and almost ran straight into one of the tables.
"Ladies first, Dean!" She yelled at him, getting to the table of empty plates first and waving one at him like a victory flag.
"Well, since I see no ladies here, I guess that means I get to go first." He replied, grabbing a plate and standing between her and the food. She glared at him for a second. He saw the flash of a smirk before the wind was knocked out of him and he staring at the ceiling. The little shit had done a leg sweep on him! When he rolled his head to look where he knew she would be, he saw that she already had a piece of bacon hanging from her mouth and was piling hash browns onto her plate.
He picked himself and his pride up off the floor, shooting a glare at the little sister he'd never wanted. He heard a laugh and turned disbelieving eyes on the angel they had left at the table. He was full on smiling back at Dean. His lips were pulled back far enough to show all of his teeth and even some of his gums. The raising of his cheeks with the action had caused his eyes to squint and laugh lines to crowd around them. His nose even scrunched up a little. It was beautiful.
Charlie cleared her throat, and Dean turned back to her. Her raised eyebrow said he may have been staring at the angel's smile a little too long.
"This asshole is laughing at me!" Dean deflected, shooting a glare at Castiel, that only made the angel chuckle again. Instead of looking back at the sun coming out from behind a storm cloud that was Castiel's smile, he started loading his plate.
So, he wasn't the first one to the buffet. It wasn't like Charlie could clean the place out by herself. He grabbed a little bit of everything, and in the design he'd come up with when he'd seen the food being unloaded, he ended at the sausage gravy. He then proceeded to pour it over the entirety of the food he'd chosen. It looked like a heart attack, but it would be worth every last involuntary twitch of his death.