I'll be working on the next chapters to post soon after this, just curious to see if everyone is interested so far! Let me know!
"That's your fifth coffee," Castiel pointed out as I pulled out of a Starbucks drive-thru.
"I'll fall asleep if I stop drinking it," I told him with my eyes still on the road.
"How much longer until we reach their motel?"
"Maybe an hour," I answered him.
After hours of having to be in the man's company I had grown used to his strange questions and odd way of speaking. He told me a little about what was going on with the angels too, for some reason apparently seeming to find me trustworthy enough to tell me. According to him, while the brothers had been trying to close the gates of Hell, which he had explained a bit further, including the part about Sam being ill, he was trying to lock all the angels back up in Heaven. Except that Metatron, the scribe of God, who had a name that constantly had me picturing him as a Transformer, had lied to him about the trials they had been doing. They hadn't been trials at all, but rather a spell that had made all the angels fall from Heaven. Which meant that Castiel was mortal, though he still seemed to have all of his memories.
"So, you have no idea what's wrong with Sam?" I asked Castiel for what felt like the tenth time, though he didn't seem to notice.
"There is something inside of him. Naomi said if he completed the trials it would kill him, but Dean had me bring him back to stop him from that. I'm not sure what is going to happen to him now."
"And you don't know of a cure?" I asked.
"No. I have never heard of a cure," Castiel replied, though he looked distraught. "If I still had my grace I might have been able to do more for him, but as I am now…I am useless. We are all useless."
I swallowed hard. What sort of terrible fate would humanity be in if angels ceased to exist and demons ran unchecked? With all of the angels now mortal there was a major imbalance between Heaven and Hell.
"There has to be something," I said to him. "There has to be some way to get your grace back—to get every angels' grace back. And a way to save Sam."
"I have never heard of such a thing," Castiel stated simply.
I glanced over at him as he fell silent and saw the deeply pained expression on his face. I drove on in silence for awhile, listening as the radio played a commercial. My exit was coming up in twelve miles according to my car's GPS, and then it would be only thirty minutes or so to the motel.
"It's all my fault," Castiel said suddenly, almost more to himself. "It always is my fault."
I didn't say anything, unsure of what to say in that moment. Glancing over now and then at him, I noticed he was fidgeting with the bottom of his tie.
"I always think I'm doing what is right, but I get it wrong," he said a moment later. "Ever since God disappeared it's been chaos in Heaven. I never wanted this for my brothers and sisters."
We were silent for a moment as a song finally came onto the radio. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him raise a hand to his face and inspect it.
"Water?"
At the tone of confusion I turned and looked at him. He met my gaze and I saw tears on his face.
Just when I thought the trip wouldn't be all that uncomfortable, now I've got a fallen angel crying in my Camry.
"You're crying," I explained uncomfortably, not sure if I should comfort him, or even how to. "People do that when they feel sad."
"Oh," he said in a small voice and continued to wipe at his face and examine the tears on his fingers. "How long does it last?"
"Er, I'm not sure? Not long, usually…"
"I like the music you listen to," he said suddenly. "The words are happier. And less vulgar."
I shot him a half-smile, not really sure what was the proper response for that. He reached over and turned the volume up a little. An almost smile was on his face now.
I took the exit and was making good time. At a red light I shot Sam a text saying we would be there in a few minutes. I was definitely ready for this little awkward road trip to come to its end. Dean and Sam would know what to do with him.
"This is their motel," I pointed out when I pulled into the parking lot.
Castiel started trying to open the car door before I even had it parked. He got out and was waiting for me to finish turning the car off.
"They're in room 113," I told him as we headed up the outside stairs.
I read off the numbers until I found theirs and knocked three times. I purposely avoided making eye contact with Castiel while we waited for someone to get the door. It was Dean who finally got it and let us inside. Both Sam and Charlie were nose deep in their laptops.
"They aren't much fun when they're like that," Dean said when he saw what I was looking at. "And you," he said, now rounding on Castiel which caused Sam to look up from his laptop. "What did you do?"
"I-I didn't know," Castiel stuttered under the weight of Dean's glare. "I thought Naomi was lying, but when I went up to Heaven, she was dead. Metatron killed her. He took my grace. He took all the angels' grace."
Dean's glare softened, but only mildly. "So you didn't help him complete the trials?"
"No. They weren't trials. It was a spell."
"Alright, so how do we undo it?" Dean asked him.
"I don't know," Castiel answered.
"Great," Dean said irritated. "Let's just throw another problem our way, it's not bad enough as it is."
No one said anything; Charlie looked up from her laptop.
Dean shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to calm himself. Sam turned off his computer and got up, grabbing a bottle of water and offering it to me.
"Thanks," I said quietly.
"I don't even know where to start," Dean said in a voice barely audible. "I have to help Sam first, you know that right? And I don't even know where to start."
"I understand that," Castiel said simply. "But I must fix what I did."
"You didn't know what you were doing," I said, feeling sympathetic for him. I had just witnessed him crying and here Dean was ready to yell at him.
All the eyes in the room turned to me.
"Well, he didn't," I insisted.
"So you take his side?" Dean asked a little harshly.
"Dean," Sam said in a warning tone.
"I warned him not to!" Dean shot at his brother.
"How was Castiel supposed to know?" Sam asked his brother. "When has Naomi ever been much help?"
"If he would have just came with me and waited this wouldn't have happened!"
Sam broke into a fit of coughs that caused Dean to immediately stop the argument. His face changed from anger to concern in mere seconds as Sam excused himself to the bathroom.
"I guess you should know what's wrong with him," Dean said to me.
"Castiel told me on the way here," I said uneasily.
Dean sighed. "At least you're all caught up."
"I know you guys don't really know what you're doing right now," I said after a moment as Sam entered back into the room, "But I want to help."
Dean stared me down from across the room. "Help?"
"If there's more of us working on this maybe we can figure something out."
Dean glanced over his shoulder at his brother. Sam seemed to think a moment before he shrugged.
"Why not? She has a point," Sam said.
"I want to help too," Charlie piped up suddenly.
"No, absolutely not," Dean said sternly. "You are not a hunter, Charlie. I don't want to bring you into this."
"But I want to help! You guys have helped me so much," she insisted.
"That's what we do," Dean said.
"I don't have to fight anything, I just want to help. I can't stand seeing Sam this way, and I can't stand seeing how it's killing you."
Charlie sat there staring Dean down over the top of her laptop.
"This isn't a game, Charlie."
"I know," she shot back fiercely.
"We might be able to use her help," Sam said after a moment.
Dean looked defeated at his brother's words and sat down on one of the beds, running a hand through his hair.
"Fine, but you're staying on the sidelines," he told her sternly.
"So we're kind of like the Fellowship. Except there aren't nine of us," She said cheerfully.
Dean gave her a firm look and she disappeared back behind her laptop again.
"Now that that's settled, I'm going to go check into a room," I said as I made my way to the door.
"Stay, I'll sleep on the couch," Dean said getting up and moving to the couch.
"I'm not making you sleep on that thing," I said looking at the couch in disgust. "It looks like it would kill your back for starters."
"It's better if we're all together so nothing happens to anyone," Dean said eyeing all of us.
"I'm feeling tired," Castiel said flatly. "I've never slept before."
"Great," Dean muttered. "Human Cas is going to be hard to get used to."
"I cried for the first time earlier," Castiel said conversationally.
Dean shot me an apologetic look from across the room.
"No one has to sleep on the couch," Charlie spoke up again. "I don't mind sharing a bed with him as long as he stays on his side of it," she said pointing to Castiel. "And Sierra could share with you or Sam."
Immediately I caught on to what she was doing and I felt my cheeks burn.
"I don't think she wants to do that," Sam said hastily.
"If it keeps someone from sleeping on that thing," I said pointing at the couch, "I'll live."
"It's just sleeping, not sex guys, seriously," Charlie said with a roll of her eyes.
I averted my eyes to the floor and excused myself to get my things from my car. When I got back to the room Dean announced he was going to make a food run for everyone and wrote up a long list before rushing out of the motel room. It looked like he really just wanted to get away.
Charlie occupied herself with her laptop again while Sam and I tried to find a movie to watch on the TV. Castiel remained silent as he watched us, and somehow remained silent for the beginning of the movie, until I noticed he had dozed off.
"It's strange seeing him like that," Sam admitted at one point when he caught him sleeping. "I feel bad for him, and I don't think Dean yelling at him helps anything."
"He seems to place a lot of blame on himself," I whispered back to him. "I don't really know everything that has been going on in the grand scheme of things, but I think Dean should go easy on him. Or be forced to spend a long road trip alone with him."
Sam chuckled softly beside me.
"Seeing him cry must have been awkward," he said.
"You have no idea," I muttered. I caught sight of Charlie smiling at me from across the room and she looked back down to her laptop quickly. "What's she up to?" I asked Sam before I could stop myself.
Sam glanced over at her before clearing his throat uncomfortably. "Looks like Dean is back," he said suddenly. "Come on, I'm starving and you have to be too after that drive."
I sat there for a moment staring at the back of him wondering what the hell that was all about.