AN: Thank you Mummabro, Faby, taytay127, and Master's daughter for the kind words. I keep writing because you all appreciate it. Here is a little more M exposition. Hope you all enjoy.
Cas sat at his desk on Friday morning sipping at the warm cup of coffee in his hands. Uriel sat across from him, a look of concern on his face. It had been about a week since they had really had much of a conversation. Each of them were in that early honeymoon phase with their new relationships and thus their regular meet ups had taken a back seat.
"Like I said, you need to talk to Sam. Something is stirring in his head, and I am not sure that it is a good thing." Uriel folded his hands in front of him and leaned forward onto his knees a little.
"I'm not sure that I'm following."" Cas tipped his head back a little and took a longer gulp of the coffee..
"The work with Niveus is rattling him. He said a bunch of stuff about ethics and such. I think that he has stumbled upon something that he does not like. Just talk to him." Uriel stood then and walked over to the window to stare out at the city below them. Cas joined him. "He was looking into other stuff too."
Cas shuffled about beside Uriel. "What other stuff?"
"Not entirely sure. He asked some questions about the case with Ezra. He wanted to know who the jurors were." Uriel shifted and looked at Cas then. "I told him that I couldn't remember their names. I tend to purge useless information once it has finished being useful."
"Hmm, me too." Cas turned back to the window and remembered the look on the forewoman's face as she read off the verdict. Crowley had been there too. What did you learn, Sam?
He would have asked more, except his intercom buzzed through. "M is here to see you." His secretary's voice chimed in. Cas walked over to the door and opened it to find M on the other side of the reception desk.
"Ready to get some reading on?" She smiled at him.
"Sure thing. Come on in. Where is mini-you?" Cas asked with a slight tone of disappointment.
"Now, Cas, I can't be having playdates with you everyday. I am a professional." She sent him a wry grin and strolled into his office. "Actually, I worked out a new daycare situation. She was disappointed that she wouldn't get to come with me today. I think that you have a fan." She tossed her satchel on the table and began pulling out files. "So, are you bringing in a warm body?" She looked over at Uriel who was still at the window.
"Hello, I am Uriel and I am leaving." Uriel raised a hand to Cas' back and said to Cas, "Let me know how it goes with Sam." Uriel strolled out of the room leaving Cas and M alone.
"Something up with Sam?" M inquired.
"Nah, I just need to make sure that he isn't getting too overworked. Uriel was concerned." It wasn't a complete fabrication. He certainly couldn't answer with complete honesty, though. He decided to redirect then. "So, how long do I have you here today?"
"Long as you need, sugar. Why? You got big plans." She gave him all of her syrupy personality in her toothy grin.
"I am thinking that I will likely be done with you by lunch." He said with some humor.
She laughed at him. "I see how it is. Well, fair enough, it is Friday after all." She handed him the first folder of papers to go over and added, "Then let's get down to business."
They decided to get lunch together before she left. He was starting to see her as a rather comfortable companion. True, she was mostly abrasive, but her abrasiveness had a touch of desperation underneath it. He supposed that he found that type of personality appealing. He had an innate desire to help fix people a little. He also thought that maybe she didn't have many friends. She seemed to be a busy person. That didn't seem to afford many opportunities for real connections. He wondered if she used the rough edges of her personality to keep the so-called selfish dicks at bay. Then there were the other questions that he had.
They had decided to revisit Carmine's from the other day. M said that it would give her another chance to practice her language skills. They sat in the same seat and M immediately ordered wine and appetizers in her crisp Italian. When the waiter had poured them their glasses and departed Cas decided to get to know a little more about M. "So, you said that you aren't married. What happened to Lil's father?"
"Don't know, don't care." She looked irritated by the question. "Why do you want to know?"
"I was just asking. I didn't realize that it would be a touchy subject." Cas saw that she was still irritated so he tried to redirect her focus a little with a parent compliment. "Your daughter seems awesome, so I guess it seemed natural to wonder about the rest of her gene pool."
"Smooth move, Cas." She looked at him, calmed for the moment. "Sorry. I just don't talk about him. He doesn't know about her and he never will. It was a real bad period."
Cas waited for her to continue, recognizing that she likely wouldn't. She brought her glass up to her lips again and took a slow sip of the wine. Cas was able to conceal his surprise when she continued, "I met him in college and we kept things going even after we left. He and I both started working for Niveus immediately after college. I was working long nights and so was he. I was just doing glorified data entry. He was doing actual research. He was putting in way more hours than I was. At the time I couldn't figure out how he managed to keep going. Well, it didn't take long for me to figure out that there was more going on. He had started popping to keep up. I didn't figure it out until he was quite invested in his little addiction. I should have questioned it sooner. I just got too wrapped up in my own little world."
"How did you find out?" Cas asked when she drifted into silence.
"One day it just clicked, ya know. I started looking into all of his stuff. Found all of his drugs and started flushing them. God, I must have flushed a couple of grand. He was so pissed when he got home. I didn't anticipate that. We were not a fighting couple. We were too busy for that."
She lapsed into another silence then and Cas asked, "What happened when he found out what you did?"
"Oh, I'm sure you can guess." She looked away off at the dusty painting of a stone bridge that was hanging over the table behind them. "Broke my nose, smashed my face on the toilet bowl, left me unconscious."
"And this is Lil's father?"
"Yep. He didn't know I was pregnant. I didn't know I was pregnant. Funny how things work out. I didn't even put him on the birth certificate. He doesn't get to have that."
"Did you leave after the incident?"
'Yes, I'm not a victim. I don't put up with that kind of shit. I was a little upset with myself at first for leaving the house. It was mine first, so he should have gotten the boot. I didn't worry about that at first though. Went to the hospital and got my nose all packed up with gauze. I even went to work the next day."
"That must have been pretty." Cas could only imagine the patchwork bruising that must have decorated her face along with the broken nose.
"Quite. I drew some stares let me tell you. It was how I met Lucky." She looked at Cas now as if the shift in the story made things more comfortable again. "He saw me sitting in my office with these big ass sunglasses on. I knew who he was, and, God, did he intimidate me."
"What happened next?" Cas couldn't help but feel fascinated by the story.
"Well, he came right up to me and took my sunglasses off. He looked at my face and tipped my head side to side. Then he said, 'now who would do this to such a pretty face?'"
Cas shifted about a little in his seat then, and she continued. "I hadn't cried one bit about what happened, but as soon as he said that I started bawling like a giant baby. I think that it was the baby hormones mind you, because I do not do that sort of thing."
"Cry?" Cas looked at her with doubt.
"Yes, you big ninny, cry. I don't cry. But I did that day. He took me to his office and made me tell him what had happened. He asked me if I was done with the bastard, and I said yes. He told me that he would see to it that his stuff was removed from my house. He was true to his word. I never saw him again and his stuff was gone. Lucky checked in on me a lot after that. I think that I became a bit of a pet project to him. Wasn't long before he had me in his little entourage of associates. He came to me one day and said, 'M how 'bout you start working with me on my special little projects now? Your talents are being wasted here. That was the first time that he called me M. I should have known then just how much he was planning to rewrite me."
"What's your real name, M?" Cas wondered aloud.
"Megan. My friends use to call me Meg though. Guess it was only a matter of time before it got shorted down to one letter. Soon maybe, I won't even have that." She tried to laugh, but it came out forced.
"Mind if I call you Megan then?" Cas offered.
"Better not. Lucky gave me this name, and I don't need him hearing you changing it."
"Well, just know that in my head, then, you are Megan." Cas looked her in the eyes and hoped that she saw sincerity in him. No one should have to be so whittled away.
"Where did you come from, Cas? You are just not like anyone I have ever met."
He laughed a quiet laugh. "I'm not that different."
She reached out a hand to his and gave it a pat before saying, "Yes, Cas, you really are."
They dropped into a drawn out silence then that was not uncomfortable. The food came and they ate it. Cas drank his glass of wine and M drank hers. They seemed content.
They walked back to the office later and M said, "I'm going to have you over for dinner next week, okay?"
"Sounds good. Any particular day?" They were taking the scenic route back through the park and Cas could hear the distant sounds of kids shrieking in playtime bliss just over the hill. He smiled at their noises.
"Maybe Monday. I don't know. Could we leave it up in the air until the weekend?" She smiled over at him. "Mind you, I am not a chef. I make a mean mac-n-cheese though. Only burned down the kitchen once."
"Hmm, too late to back out?"
"Ha, yes. You already committed." They turned the corner back to the office and made their way in. When they got back to the office, M gathered up her folders and left. "See ya around Cas."
"Bye, M." Megan.
Review, Fav., Follow. The next chapter is going to focus on Dean and Cas heading to Bobby's. 'Till then...