Seems like a lot of people are interested in this story so far so I thought I'd update!
Waking up I could feel a weight beside me, and in the brief moments before I remembered where I was, I felt a bit of panic. But then I heard Dean's groggy voice complaining about the alarm clock and remembered it was only Sam next to me.
Charlie and Castiel were in the bed next to us. She had created a barrier of pillows down the center of the bed to make sure he stayed on his side while he slept. As funny as I found it, I would have done the same thing. It wasn't like either of us would think he would try anything, it was just that he was incredibly strange being fallen angel instead of a human.
"Next time maybe we should get adjoining rooms," Charlie said as she sat up and stretched. "Now we've got one shower between the five of us."
"I'll go pick up breakfast," Dean said as he ran a hand over his face, slowly waking up. "You girls get ready first."
"I'll go with you," Sam said, already rushing to grab his jacket and pull on his shoes.
"Wake me up when you're done with the shower," I said to Charlie before lying back down and tugging the blankets up further.
Sam chuckled at me from across the room as he waited for his brother to finish pulling on his own shoes. The bed beside me shifted and I heard Castiel offer to go with them.
"Fine," Dean said after a moment. "But try to act normal, alright?"
"Dean," I heard Sam say in a warning tone.
"You're right, wouldn't be the first time we caused a scene at a Dunkin Donuts," Dean muttered.
I bit back a laugh and tried to close my eyes as they left the motel room. Falling back to sleep was easy, but waking up a second time to Charlie shaking me wasn't.
"Showers open!"
"Ugh," I grumbled and began kicking the sheets off of myself.
Grabbing some clothes that looked clean out of my duffle bag, I trudged into the bathroom and shut the door. By the time I had showered and was drying my hair with a towel I could hear the guys just getting back. My stomach gave a growl and I figured I looked good enough.
"Got you coffee," Dean said as I walked into the room and he handed me a cup.
Sam headed into the bathroom next after he finished up his coffee without saying a word.
"So what's the plan now?" Charlie asked as she bit into a doughnut.
"We're thinking we should head back to the headquarters we had told you about," Dean said. "Figure maybe we can see if they have anything in their records to help us with all of this."
"Headquarters?" I asked him as I took a doughnut.
"It was a secret organization called the Men of Letters," Dean told me.
"Very sexist," Charlie cut in.
Dean ignored her and continued to explain. "They were like an elite group of hunters and they were around for a long time. They documented a lot of things and kept them on file. Sammy and I were thinking that might be a good place to look and see if they had run into any of this Word of God stuff. Maybe we'll find a way to reverse whatever is going on with Sam there."
"And the angels," Castiel added.
"That sounds like a good place to start then," I admitted.
"How far away is it?" Charlie asked curiously.
"It will probably be a little over a day's drive, so we're going to have to make a stop again somewhere tonight," Dean answered her.
Charlie slumped in her seat clearly not thrilled at the prospect of another long car ride.
"You can always ride with me," I offered. "I wouldn't mind some company. And it might get cramped with Castiel riding with you in the Impala."
She seemed to brighten up a bit at the suggestion and agreed immediately. Dean got up and I noticed that Sam had finished showering. Thankfully he had put a shirt on so I could save myself the embarrassment of Charlie catching me staring at him again. He sat down on his bed and pulled out his laptop and stayed silent that way for awhile.
Castiel was staring out of the motel window watching the cars drive by on the street below. He seemed oddly silent since they had returned, but no one said anything so I figured it wasn't too out of the ordinary for him.
Once Dean had finished his shower, it was an amusing sight for Charlie, Sam and I watching him try to explain how to shower to Castiel. He looked so uncomfortable and would shoot us looks anytime one of us audibly made a sound.
"Thanks for jumping in and helping," Dean grumbled afterwards.
Castiel was out in a few minutes and we were ready to head out. All our things had been gathered up and packed away while we had been waiting on Castiel, and Dean had given me the address of where we were heading. We had agreed to try to stay close together on the drive and to call the moment one of us needed to stop to sleep tonight.
It wasn't long before we were on the road and Charlie was digging through my iPod looking for music and making comments on certain bands. She finally picked something and she eventually seemed to think she had made a good choice because she settled into her seat and relaxed.
"It's nice to hear something other than Dean's music for once," she commented.
That was the second time someone had made a comment about his taste in music and I wondered if it was really that bad.
"You sure you want to be getting involved in all this?" I asked her, my eyes still on the road watching the Impala in front of us.
It was a moment before she answered.
"Yeah. They've grown on me after all the time I've spent with them now. And they've helped me out of a few jams." She paused and then added, "It's not like I want to get involved in the fighting or become a hunter or anything, but research? I'm good at that."
"Dean mentioned you're great with computers," I said.
A wide smile crossed her lips. "So what about you? Why do you want to suddenly help them?"
"Because they look like they could use some help, and I don't leave fellow hunters alone in times of need. That wasn't what I was taught." I let out a sigh when I pictured Bobby's face full of concern whenever he told me about a tough situation the Winchester brothers had gotten themselves into and added on in a quieter voice, "That's not what Bobby would want."
Charlie suddenly turned halfway in her seat to face me. "If I tell you something, will you promise not to say anything? I don't want Sam to kill me but I can't hold it in any longer."
I eyed her suspiciously. "Is this what you've been trying to tell me but Sam keeps stopping you from saying?"
"Yes."
Chewing my lip in thought, I glanced back at the Impala. I was curious to know what he kept trying to keep her from telling me, but I wasn't sure I wanted to know at the same time.
"I suppose I can keep a secret," I told her eventually.
"Great! So you remember how I was telling you about those books?" she asked me, becoming fully animated now.
"Yeah, the ones Chuck wrote?"
She nodded her head. "Well I read the little…I don't know, we can call them manuscripts I guess, that weren't published before I started on the books—"
"Is that what you've been doing when you're on your laptop, reading those books?" I asked her immediately.
She gave me a sheepish look. "Don't say anything, alright? I'm sure Dean would freak. But they're kind of interesting and I've been curious if there's anything useful in them. But mostly I'm just curious," She admitted with a laugh.
I sighed and shook my head, shooting her a half grin and waiting for her to continue.
"Like I said, I read the unpublished stuff first and there were snippets about the demon tablet and the trials, though it never said what the trials were, and in those little short stories Sam is really sick, which I'm assuming is from the trials. And in another little snippet he wrote about something happening to the angels; they were all cast out of Heaven. Which I guess now we've found it is because of some spell by this…Megatron—"
"Metatron," I corrected automatically.
"Still sounds like a Transformer to me," she said.
I shot her a grin before letting out a laugh. "That's exactly what I thought."
Smiling, she continued on, "Well there's other stuff mentioned in these manuscripts besides the tablets and Sam being sick. In one of them Sam supposedly meets some woman at a bar—"
"Please spare me the details here," I said jokingly.
Charlie rolled her eyes at me and continued as if I hadn't interrupted. "—and it makes a comment that he doesn't know it yet, but she is what keeps him from running off to complete the last trial on his own, the trial that would kill him if he did it."
"I thought Dean stops him from doing that?"
"He did, but it seems like the manuscript hints that Sam regrets not finishing it and that he wants to. And, the thing is, he makes comments from time to time. In real life, I mean, not the stories. He talks about how he shouldn't care about sacrificing his life to save so many others. It always gets Dean in a sour mood when he does, which is why I think he wants us all to stick together, so he can keep an eye on all of us. Especially Sam."
"So you two think Sam is going to run off and finish this last trial, whatever it is—"
"Curing a demon," she supplied.
"Curing a demon? That's possible?" I asked in awe.
"Apparently it is."
"Well, shit." I said after a moment, not having any idea that was even a real way to deal with demons. "So, you two think he's going to run off and cure a demon and get himself killed?"
"Dean thinks so. He's always watching Sam, and when he isn't, he's got me watching him. It's only a matter of time before he figures out that Dean is keeping tabs on him, and if I know the two like I think I do by now, that's only going to cause problems."
"And according to Chuck's manuscripts, he meets some chick at a bar and magically he stops the heroics?"
"I'm assuming it has to do with love or something, I don't know. It doesn't really say. It doesn't really say anything about the woman though, just a little bit of a description."
"Huh," I said, deep in thought.
"I think it means you," Charlie said after a moment.
"What?" I asked, completely appalled. "No, I don't think so, that's ridiculous."
"You sound just like them," Charlie said with a sigh. "Chuck was right about everything else so far, why not about this too?"
"Maybe he thought throwing in a love interest would be a nice change of pace? I don't know, but I don't believe that."
"Why not?"
"Because," I said, "you said yourself it's very vague. Maybe Chuck didn't know what he was seeing. And like Sam said, he can't predict the future."
"Sure seems like he knew a lot about it though," Charlie mumbled out.
"I just think it sounds farfetched."
"You are attracted to him; I've seen you get tongue-tied with him," Charlie pointed out.
"Who wouldn't be attracted to him?" I said automatically.
"And you're going to be spending a lot of time with him now that we're all working on this case together," Charlie added.
"That doesn't mean anything, hunters work together all the time."
"And you met in a bar exactly like in the manuscript," she continued on.
"Coincidence," I insisted.
Charlie shot me a sly grin. "I've caught him staring at you. I think the feeling, whatever it is, is mutual."
I shot her a look. "I think you're imagining things now."
"If you guys start falling for each other, don't say I didn't warn you," she said smugly as she leaned back into her seat.
"If that somehow did even happen, that doesn't make Chuck right. Ever hear of a self-fulfilling prophecy? You've told us both about it now."
"If it saves his life and makes the both of you happy, what does it matter what sort of prophecy it is?" Charlie asked.
I had no clue how to answer her so instead I said, "I see why Sam kept trying to keep you quiet now."
She let out a little laugh. "Part of it is because he thinks he's in love with some girl he met about a year ago and spent a lot of time with. Her name was like…Amy or something, I don't know. Anyway, she thought her husband was killed in action, he's in the military by the way, but turns out one day he just shows up. So, eventually, Sam leaves thinking he's doing the right thing."
"When did he have time for all of this to happen?"
"Dean was in purgatory or something I think?" Charlie said looking as if she was deep in thought. "I think that's what it was. No one talks about it much; it seems to be a trigger subject that starts fights."
"I can't imagine why," I said sarcastically.
"Anyway, long story short, it seems Chuck seems to think you and Sam are supposed to fall in love or something. You're supposed to keep him from finishing the last trial so he doesn't die."
I rolled my eyes dramatically. "Just because I'm not arguing with you about it doesn't mean I think you're right." I ignored the look she was giving me. "Besides, if Sam doesn't finish the trials, and we don't find some sort of cure for him, he's going to die. So I don't see what some chick at a bar has to do with anything here."
"Sooner or later you're going to realize Chuck and I are right on this," Charlie said in a sing-song voice.
"If you say so—hey, I think Dean is texting me, can you get that?"
Charlie grabbed my phone from the cup holder and checked the text.
"He's hungry," she said simply. "Oh wait, he just sent something else."
"What?"
"Are you serious?" she said, staring at my phone.
"What?" I asked again.
"He said he wants pie. Why does he always want pie?" she asked and then turned to glare at the Impala that was a little ways ahead of us.
I laughed at the look on her face. "Why does it bother you so much?"
"Do you have any idea how difficult it's going to be finding a diner that is suitable enough for his pie needs?" Charlie asked me seriously. "It's going to be another hour before we stop for food."