Chapter Two
"Hello Dean, how did the hunt go?" Castiel was on his break at the store, and was anxious to hear what Dean found, and when he saw the many missed calls from his close friend, he was worried.
"Not as good as I liked. Hey Cas, you know where the motel is right? The Restless Inn?" Dean had gotten a motel close to Castiel's work, and was currently watching the two kids sleep. After stopping and getting them food, they devoured all they could before curling up on the bed and slept.
"Yes...why what's wrong?"
"Good news, the bitches who abducted the kids are dead. Bad news, so is most of the kids. However, I have two rugrats who're resting right now, and apparently child services isn't in till Monday, so I told them I'd look after them till then. Can...You come to the motel? Please? I'm...I'm in over my head here."
"I don't understand...I thought you were good with kids, you had Ben when you were with Lis-" Dean cut him off before he even finished mentioned his past love.
"Ben was a lot older than these two Cas. Please?" Dean hated sounding desperate, but he couldn't help it.
"I understand. I'll let my manager know and I'll be there shortly."
When Castiel finally showed up, Dean was surprised to see he had stopped and gotten a first aid kit, extra shampoo and soap, and bottled water.
"Wow Cas, you come prepared."
"Of course Dean." He smiled at his friend, before looking to the kids. Clara woke first, and was watching the strange man near the door. "Hello little one...what's your name?" Castiel began to take off his coat and his still ruined work vest, before going over to the bed and sat at the end of it.
"...Clara." She spoke softly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"My name is Castiel. But, you can call me Cas." Castiel realized his full name might be harder for the girl to pronounce.
"Hi Cas." She smiled shyly, before crawling out from under the covers and towards Castiel. Castiel looked anxiously towards Dean, who was smirking at the ex-angel's uneasiness. He had to try not to laugh when Clara actually climbed up into Castiel's lap and clung to him. Castiel instinctively wrapped an arm around her tiny frame. "Where's mommy?" She asked, frowning a bit. Castiel looked to Dean for help with a slight look of panic on his face.
"We're gonna go to your mommy on Monday. There's gonna be some nice people who help us find her ok?" Dean said, and looked over to Alex, who just woke up. Alex watched Dean with sad eyes, however before Dean could ask, they heard Clara whimper.
"Back hurts…" She said softly after getting a quizzical look from everyone.
"May I see?" Castiel asked, and after a soft nod, he looked to her back and lifted the dirty shirt she had on. On her back there were scratches, bruises and cuts all up and down. Dean tensed, and looked to Alex.
"Do you have the same thing on yours?" He asked, and Alex nodded, before pulling his shirt off. He was skinnier than Dean thought he was, and his front and back were covered in cuts and bruises. "Who did this?" Dean all but growled out.
"Those bad ladies." Clara spoke up. "But Alex kept me safe." Castiel smiled at her, before looking to Alex.
"It's my job." The boy spoke softly, and Dean went over, and ruffled his hair after Alex pulled his shirt back on.
"And you did a good job. How about a warm bath for the both of you, and we'll get those cuts all bandaged up ok?" Alex nodded, and looked like he might cry a bit. "Something wrong buddy?"
"My dad use to tell me good job." Alex kept looking back from him to Clara, as if he didn't want to speak about what was on his mind in front of his sister. Dean bit his lip, before motioning Alex to follow him to the bathroom to start up the bath.
"Dean, I have a co-worker who has two kids, maybe she can help with finding new clothes for these two." Castiel spoke up; however he couldn't get up without carrying Clara. He pulled out his cell phone and called his co-worker, who luckily was off. Dean nodded and went to the bathroom, and started up the warm water. Once he was satisfied with the water, he sat down on the closed toilet seat and looked at Alex.
"What's wrong buddy?" He spoke softly and actually motioned for Alex to close the door behind him. He did, and as soon as he heard the door click close, he started crying.
"I-I'm sorry….it's just…our Moms are dead...I haven't told Clara yet, because….how do you tell someone that?! That 'Mommy's dead and Daddy's never coming back' and-" Alex yelped slightly when he felt Dean pull him over and hold him.
"I know….it hard….it hard to explain to your younger sibling what's going on. You want to protect them, protect their innocence as long as possible...I completely understand Alex. And I'm proud of you, for being so strong for Clara. We'll….We'll figure this out together ok?" Alex nodded into his shoulder, still crying. Dean reached over and stopped the water before the tub overflowed, and carefully rocked Alex back and forth till he calmed down. A knock came from the door. "Yeah?"
"My co-worker, Rachel, she should be over with some clothes here soon. She actually has a little boy and girl, so she said she should have some old clothes for them both. And she said she'd bring over some toys for them." Castiel had poked his head in, and he was still holding Clara. "Everything ok?"
"Yeah, just having some guy time. You guy guys ready for a bath?" Clara nodded, and squirmed to get down, while Alex rubbed his face and nodded.
"Thank you" He whispered to Dean. Dean just smiled and ruffled his hair. A few minutes later, with some help from Cas, they got the kids cleaned up enough to finally tell what was dirt and what was discoloration from bruising. Dean was surprised to find that both of them actually had blonde hair, it had looked brownish, most likely from all the dirt. Castiel heard the door, and excused himself while Dean was drying Clara off.
"Hello Steve!" Rachel smiled as she held up several bags.
"Rachel...Thank you so much…"
"It's no problem, anything to help out a friend. You never said whose kids they were...are they yours?"
"It's a long story." Castiel gave her an apologetic smile.
"I gotcha. Well I brought a couple pairs of clothes for both, some coloring books, papers and coloring supplies, and you said they might be hurt so I grabbed these." The black haired woman pulled out two sets of Band-Aids, one Hello Kitty the other with Batman. Castiel blinked a bit at that. He was sure he got bandages, but didn't think about gender specific ones. Then again, angels didn't normally worry about that.
"Thank you so much. I'll return the clothes as soon as-"
"Don't worry about it Steve. It's the least I can do since you've covered my shift more than once while I had my own emergencies." She winked at him, waved and left. Castiel closed the door and started unpacking the items Rachel got for them. Dean brought Clara wrapped up in a towel out, and helped Castiel figure out an outfit for the both of them. After getting them both in underwear and pants, Castiel worked on getting Clara's cuts all cleaned up and let her pick out which bandages she wanted for which cuts, while Dean worked on Alex's back.
"Batman...cools…" Alex smiled softly as he spoke quietly. Dean chuckled a bit.
"Yeah, Batman's pretty cool. He's one of my favorite."
"Is that why you saved us?" Dean was stumped by the question, and it wasn't till Alex looked back at him he understood.
"OH! No...No I'm not Batman. I...my job is to help people."
"From bad people?" Clara spoke up, finally getting a shirt on. Castiel nodded and smiled over at Dean.
"Yeah."
"But you're not the police?" Alex asked, watching Dean's reactions.
"No...but that doesn't mean I can't help people." Alex seemed ok with that answer, and after Dean finished up, got his own shirt on.
"I better call Sammy. How about you stay here Cas and I'll go and get us Dinner?" Even though a few hours ago the kids ate, he didn't like how skinny and malnourished they looked. After getting opinions of what they liked and didn't, Castiel included, Dean left. Castiel turned on the TV, found some cartoons, and then watched as Clara went over to the coloring books and papers.
"Oh...those are for you guys, if you want." Castiel smiled at Clara, and Clara watched him, before nodding. She took up the crayons and began to draw while Alex watched Cartoons.
"Yes Sammy, Cas and I can take care of it. Look can you do me a favor and look and see if there's been any more children abductions and murders? I got the three bitches, but I don't know if there are more, and I don't want anything else coming after these kids….They've been through enough." Dean had just gone to the local diner and got just about anything he could think the kids would want besides what they told him. He was getting out of the car as he was talking to Sam.
"Dean...I know that tone." Sam warned, worried his brother would get attached.
"I'll be ok. Cas will be ok." Dean saw Cas at the door, showing concern. "Look I gotta go I'll call you later." He hung up and grabbed the food. "Everything ok?" He asked as he got to the door, Castiel helping him with some of the food.
"I'm not sure...I...I better just show you." He lead Dean in, and motioned to the drawings Clara had been doing while he was gone. Alex looked scared, which made Dean even more concerned.
"Whatcha drawing there little lady?" Dean was soft in his tone, as he looked at all the scattered drawings. Almost all of them were of Castiel and Dean, however what was concerning is that Castiel had black wings and a halo, and Dean had either a gun or a knife. He looked through them, surprised to see them hunting things, and the more recent one Clara was working on, was the two of them, with the kids. Again, Cas had wings, and Dean had a knife, that looked like the demon knife he had with him at the moment.
"I'm drawing you….and Cas…." Dean looked to Alex, who was biting his lip.
"And why'd you draw Cas with wings?" He asked, sitting down next to Clara.
"Cause he's an angel."
"Clara…" Alex gave a warning tone, and Dean motioned for him to calm down, that it was ok.
"...ok why don't you draw me with wings?" Thinking it might just be that she's fond of Castiel more.
"You don't have wings. you're not an angel. You…" Clara scrunched her face as she searched for the word. "hunt."
"Clara shut up!" Alex jumped up, and he went over to his sister, pulling the drawing away. "Don't lie!" He scolded, and Clara whined and stood up trying to get the drawing.
"I'm not lying! It's ok Alex!" Clara cried out when Alex pushed her away, and looked to the two men in the room.
"It's not ok! You can't lie to these nice people." Dean noticed that the lights started to flicker, and looked to Castiel as if he was doing it. Castiel gave him the same startled look before they looked back to Alex.
"I'm not lying!" Clara yelled. "Cas was an angel and Dean hunts bad things! Bad people!"
"SHUT UP!" At that moment he screamed, and the light bulbs in the room burst, causing Dean and Castiel to lunge forward to protect both kids. Alex tensed when Dean's hands went around him, and Dean hurt glass cracking afterwards.
"It's ok Alex." He spoke softly, showing he wasn't mad. "Just calm down ok?" Dean had figured out after the outburst that Alex was the one causing the chaos. Alex started to pant, and seemed to calm down enough that Castiel and Dean pulled away to look at the damage. The windows were cracked, and all the light bulbs were destroyed. Alex looked around with them, and looked over to the two fearful.
"I...I didn't mean…" He bolted to the bathroom, and Dean heard the door lock. He sighed, and figured he would work with one child at a time
"Clara...sweetie how do you know that I'm a hunter and Cas is an Angel?" He asked the little girl, watching as Castiel made sure she wasn't hurt
"I just do. But…Cas isn't an angel anymore...I dunno why. I just know he was one." Dean looked startled at the 4 year olds words, and then looked up to Castiel.
"I've got it here Dean, go check on Alex." Dean nodded and went to the bathroom door. He knocked, and when he got no response he knocked again and called out to the scared boy.
"Alex...hey buddy it's ok, I'm not mad-"
"Not yet, but you will be!" Dean could tell he was crying, and looked to see if there was a shadow by the door. Seeing as there wasn't one, he began to pick the lock to the bathroom door. When he got inside and closed the door behind him, he found Alex curled up in the tub, crying.
"It's ok Alex; just...tell me what's going on." Dean sat down carefully next to the bathtub, waiting patiently for the boy to explain.
"We're...We're not normal. Clara can see things and you saw what I can do. Please...Please don't hurt us. I'll try not to get angry and break stuff and-"
"Hey hey hey calm down!" Dean touched Alex's shoulder. "Nobody's hurting anybody and it's ok!" Alex stopped, watching Dean for a moment. "I'm use to not normal. Trust me. It's alright. No harm no foul. Now, how long has this been happening? " Alex took a few deep breaths to calm himself.
"For a few weeks now." Dean nodded; it matched up with when the Angels fell.
"Ok...Anything else you can do? Or Clara?"
"Clara only can see...things...I can't control mine when I'm upset, but...I can make some things move, and change the channels on the TV. Cas didn't notice I did that while you were gone."
"Probably because he was concerned about what Clara was drawing." Dean chuckled a bit. "You ready to come out now?" Alex nodded, and Dean lead him out of the bathroom.
"Is what Clara said true? You hunt things and Cas-"
"Was an angel, yeah. Long story." Dean shook his head. Alex nodded, before hearing his stomach growl.
"Food?" Clara peered over at her brother and Dean.
"Food." Dean nodded, but leaned down and whispered to Alex, "You may want to apologize to your sister." Alex nodded quickly and went over to Clara. After whispering something to her, she hugged him, and Alex hugged back. Dean looked over to Castiel, who looked pleased with the situation, but figured the hunter would tell him what was going on later on.