"Get here all right?" Garth asked as he opened the door to his motel room and let me inside.
"It was quite the uneventful drive, yes," I told him before stretching out on his bed. "Been waiting here long?"
"Not really, maybe an hour or so. I was looking through the library archives for information on our supernatural friend so we could make quick work of digging them up."
"Yeah? What did you find?" I asked him, rubbing my eyes and sitting upright.
"Like I said," he told me, "just an easy bone burnin'. He's in the cemetery just a few minutes out of town. We can kill some time until it gets dark and then head out and take care of business."
"Sounds like a plan. You on phone duty?" I asked him.
Ever since Bobby had passed Garth had sort of taken over his job. He offered safe havens and help for other hunters; apparently Bobby had taught him a lot in the short span they had known each other. Garth might come off as a scrawny little guy, but he was smart and incredibly organized.
"Always am, kid. How was your breakfast?"
"Strange," I said simply.
He shot me a quizzical look and waited for me to say more.
"They've got this friend and she seems real interested in me and Sam. Other than that, and the tension from whatever is wrong with Sam, it was alright."
"She jealous, that friend?" Garth asked.
I shook my head. "No. Which makes me even more curious. But," I said with a shrug, "it'll probably be awhile before I run into those guys again."
"You never know," Garth said in a teasing tone.
"Stop it," I said with a laugh, slapping him on the shoulder.
"You hungry for an early dinner? We could grab something quick and take advantage of the premium channels here," he suggested.
"Yeah, actually, that sounds nice," I told him.
He paused in the middle of putting on his coat and shot me a look. "Burger King?"
"You know me so well, Fitzgerald," I said with a laugh. "And let's take my car. I don't want to have to get out and push your car through the drive-thru."
"She's never let me down!"
"Except for all of those times she has. Really, you should get a new car. Something reliable at least."
Garth gave me a look and I held up my hands defensively. "I'm just being honest."
We headed outside and got into my Toyota, something I considered a reliable car in comparison to Garth's old clunker of a vehicle.
"Bout that time, I'd say," Garth said as the credits to an old 80's movie started rolling. "Should be dark enough to get this over with."
I got up and stretched before slinging my duffle bag over my shoulder. "Ready?"
He was standing with his own bag in hands and eyeing up the room as if he was making sure he hadn't forgotten anything. "Yeah, let's roll out."
I suppressed a chuckle and followed him out, putting our bags of weapons into the trunk of my car before getting into the driver's seat.
"You said it's just out of the town?" I asked him.
He nodded and began giving me directions and eventually we pulled up outside a gated cemetery. We got out and I grabbed a shotgun with some salt rounds out of my bag while Garth found a shovel, some salt, matches, and a flashlight.
"Looks like we're going to need to climb the fence," I pointed out when we got closer. "It's actually locked and I don't have anything to cut it open with."
"This is why we should have used my car, at least I'm prepared," Garth chastised me.
I gave him a sheepish grin before sliding my shotgun through the gate. Taking a few steps back, I took a running start before jumping up onto the fence and slowly pulled myself to the top. Before I jumped down to the other side, I glanced to make sure Garth was coming along alright. He was already climbing up the fence now so I let myself drop to the other side and picked up our things. Seconds later he dropped down beside me looking winded.
"There's a reason I don't like physical activity," he muttered to me before grabbing the shovel from my hands.
"Who are we looking for now?"
"A Stephen Flemings," he told me as he wiped a hand over his brow as if climbing the fence really had taken a lot out of him.
I flipped on the flashlight and began reading the names on the tombstones. Row after row we walked until my light fell upon the tombstone that we had been looking for.
"This it?"
"That's him alright," Garth answered. "Might want to make a salt circle while I start digging. Just in case."
I nodded and began pouring salt around us in a large enough circle. When I finished with that, the two of us took turns digging up the grave. Since I only had one shovel in my trunk, it took about a half hour for us to finally dig up the casket. Garth broke it open and went for the container of salt and began pouring it on while I stood guard with my shotgun. Lucky for us, the burning of the bones went uneventful. Garth had tossed the lit match right as the ghost had started to materialize, but it went up in flames and disappeared before he could even say a word.
"I told you it would be easy," Garth said with a grin. "I'll start tossing the dirt back if you get rid of the salt circle."
We worked in silence for a few minutes before a voice caused me to jump in the air and point my shotgun in the direction it had come from.
A man was standing there with an earnest look on his face. He looked disheveled and lost, not to mention completely out of place standing in the middle of a cemetery in his suit and trench coat.
"You know Dean Winchester," the man repeated as he stared at Garth.
"I might," Garth told the man. "Depends who is asking."
"I wasn't asking," he said in a monotone, matter-of-fact voice.
Garth fidgeted in place and shot me a look. I gave a slight shrug but didn't lower my shotgun.
"Who are you?" I called out to him. "What's your name?"
He paused and turned to me, his head tilting to the side, before he answered. "I am Castiel."
"Oh!" Garth said, recognition hitting him. "You're that angel friend of theirs!"
Castiel's face fell at this comment. Garth realized his mistake a moment later.
"Sorry. Yes, I do know Dean," Garth told him.
"Where is he?"
Garth looked over at me for an answer, but I had no idea. I shrugged in response.
"I need to find him," Castiel said urgently.
"If you come with us I can call him up and see where they are. I just saw them this morning, they can't be far. I could take you to them?" I offered feeling a little awkward.
If this man was an angel, or whatever they were now seeing as Garth told me something had happened to all the angels about a week ago, I couldn't imagine what sitting next to him in a car for a few hours would be like.
"I will come with you then," Castiel said taking a step forward.
I exchanged a nervous glance with Garth.
"Well…let's get back to my car then since we're done here," I said, shifting uncomfortably and lowering my gun.
It was awkward silence that followed as we made our way back to the cemetery entrance. I slid our things through the fence again and began climbing it with Garth, but I stopped when I noticed Castiel standing there watching us with a perplexed expression on his face.
"Just grab on to these here," I told him, gesturing to some design in the gate that would offer as a foothold.
Awkwardly he did as I said and Garth and I pulled him over and directed him to jump down. Once he had made it over, the two of us jumped down after him.
"That was unpleasant," Castiel said.
"Er, yeah. Sorry," I said uncomfortably as I pulled out my car keys and unlocked the car. "You can get in, I'll just put these in the trunk."
The two climbed into the car, Castiel sitting in the backseat. I opened the trunk and placed the shotgun back in the duffle bag before pushing the shovel into the back of the trunk. I slammed the trunk lid shut and jumped in shock to see Castiel staring at me from the rear window. I shoved a strand of hair behind my ear and broke eye contact as I got into the driver's seat and started the car.
"It's about a seven minute drive back to the motel and when we get there I'll call Dean, alright?" I told the man in my backseat, eyeing him through the rearview mirror.
He nodded and began to stare out the window as I started driving. I noticed Garth kept glancing over his shoulder to look at him every few seconds, but Castiel didn't appear to notice.
As I had said, it took us about seven minutes to get back to the motel where Garth was staying. We made our way back up to his room, Castiel following behind us silently but staring at everything. Once in the room, I pulled my phone out and began searching for Dean's number. I dialed it when I found it and immediately began pacing the room. Garth stretched out on his bed and Castiel sat awkwardly on the edge of a chair on the other side of the room, watching me pace.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up," I muttered under my breath.
"Hello?" a gruff and tired voice finally answered.
I glanced at the alarm clock by the bed and noticed it had gotten late.
"Hey, Dean, it's Sierra. I didn't wake you or something did I?" I asked, biting my lip and feeling bad. Castiel had seemed to find this an urgent matter though.
"Sort of, but it's fine. What's up? Didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Garth and you have a problem?"
"No, actually, um, we kind of ran into someone. Castiel ring a bell?"
There was a pause and I heard him curse under his breath.
"You found him?" Dean asked.
"Not exactly, he sort of found us. Guess he recognized Garth. Anyway, he wanted to find you."
"What's he need now?" Dean asked sounding agitated.
"I'm not sure…" I said, my voice trailing off as I glanced at the man. He was still watching me pace the room. "He seems to think it's urgent. I told him I'd take him to you, I just don't know where you are."
There was another pause and another curse from Dean under his breath. "We're in northern Nebraska. If you're in Colorado we aren't that far away, probably a good day's worth of a drive. If you just stay put we'll meet up with you."
"No, really, it's fine. I don't think I can sit here with him staring at me," I told him, whispering the last part.
Dean chuckled a bit. "Alright. I'll have Sam text you the address of our motel and we'll just sit tight until you get here. Call either of us if you need anything, you hear me?"
"Yeah, got it," I told him before hanging up the phone.
"So?" Garth asked, eyebrows raised.
"They're in Nebraska still," I said then turned to Castiel. "If we leave now we'll get there by afternoon tomorrow probably. Unless my lead foot gets us there faster…or I need to stop for sleep."
He stood up hastily. "Let's leave now then."
"Alright, well," I said, turning back to Garth, "I'll check in with you later. The sooner we head out the better."
"Stay safe, kid. Call if you need anything."
"Will do," I told him.
I left the motel room, Castiel following closely behind me all the way back out to my car. He climbed into the front seat this time and buckled up when I told him to.
"I never needed one of these before," he said, stretching and unstretching the seatbelt around his chest.
I shot him a look and wondered if the entire drive was going to be this strange and I silently hoped he would fall asleep for awhile.
"You don't mind me listening to the radio, do you?" I asked him.
"Dean listens to music all the time, but Sam always tells him it's terrible and that he plays it too loudly," Castiel told me. "I think the music they both listen to sounds terrible."
I sat there chewing my lip, unsure if that was a 'yes' or a 'no'.
"How about I just don't turn it up too loud then?" I said after a moment.
There was no way I was going to sit in silence for about ten hours or more with only his strange comments to keep me awake.