.

II.

I will be watching over you
I am gonna help you see it through
I will protect you in the night
I am smiling next to you

In silent lucidity

"Hello, Castiel."

"Naomi."

"I suppose you know why you're here."

"I… I think I do. Yes."
"Then why don't you tell me."
Silence.
"Castiel."

"… I saved my human last night."

"That indeed is the reason why you're here. But please, be more specific. How did you rescue your human?"

"I… I stopped him from taking his own life."
"Exactly. You revealed yourself to them, spoke to them and even touched them in order to implement your memories into his mind. Are you aware of the consequences this inappropriate behaviour will bring to you?"

Silence.
"Castiel, please. Be a bit more responsive."

"I'm sorry."

"That's the problem. I do not think you are."

Silence.

"You were explicitly told to never reveal yourself to your human – in any circumstances. I understand that their actions startled you, but-"

"I was only doing what I had to do! I protected him from himself and thus saved him."
"You saved them by breaking the rules, Castiel. We can't allow this."

"My human most likely does not have any recollections from past night's events; he was not in his right mind at the time."
"It is true that they weren't in their right mind, and that's the only reason why we decided not to waste you. We will have to punish you, though."

A sigh, and a nod.
"I understand."

"Good. Your grace will be taken from you and you shall walk among human kind until you have reconsidered your actions."

"… What about Dean?"

A slightly annoyed sigh.

"Your human will be fine. I will have another guardian appointed to them as soon as possible. Now, prepare yourself for your fall, Castiel. I hope to see you back in Heaven soon."

An explosion of sounds, scents, colours and feelings. Voices, light, the rush of cars; a burning sensation in his belly, a dull smell, a slightly hurting throat. His head, it's spinning – a cold sensation on the palm of his hand; is he holding something?

Castiel breathed in and out, trying to calm down and cope with the sudden overflow of feelings and observations. It didn't work. A feeling of unease; panic. He looked around. Where am I? Fear. So many moving vehicles, so many humans surrounding him and the sounds they were all producing suffocated him. The cars started honking, someone pushed his shoulder.

"… green! Walk, you dickbag."

He realized that the thing he had been holding was an object that he remembered Dean calling a traffic light. He was in a city then, close to a road. No. He was standing on the middle of a road and should be walking to the other side. He pushed himself away from the traffic light and placed one foot after the other. The cars. They kept on honking. Another person bumped into him; a piercing scent entered his nose. Perfume, deodorant, eau de cologne? It didn't matter; he just had to keep on walking. But why, he wondered, did the cars start moving forwards? He was still on the road and yet they were getting closer. More honking. More panic. A human body could not handle the impact of a metal object this size crushing into it, he knew. The end was in sight, though. He had to walk only a few more meters to reach the other side of the road. He fastened his pace. A car abruptly stopped at a few inches from his leg, causing Castiel to jump. The person who had been driving the car stuck his head outside, so Castiel stopped walking. This was what people did if they wanted to communicate, as far as he knew.

"C'mon, I ain't got all day!" the human shouted, and, as if to put more power behind his words, he honked twice.

"I- I'm sorry," Castiel stuttered and quickly ran towards the safety of the pavement.

He had no idea what to do next.

He'd never been in a human vessel before. He knew what to expect from humans, though. Of course he did. He had been observing them and silently living amongst them all his existence. But he had never known what it was like to experience emotions this fierce and vivid; to feel hunger or thirst or to feel exhaustion. He couldn't possibly name everything he was experiencing right now, or know how to fulfil the needs as to make the negative feelings disappear.

People kept bumping into him and yelling profanities at him. He realized he shouldn't just stand there but find somewhere quieter to overthink everything. He let the crowd lead him in his motions, following the humans to their unknown destinations.

After minutes of walking, Castiel noticed a gate that led to a green environment. As he walked through the gate, the sound of the chaos behind him finally dimmed until it was just a soft buzz in the distance. He sighed in relief, and slowly walked further, following the path that led through the park. Soon, he neared a small pond. He sat down on a nearby bench and stared at the water. For the first time, he saw his human form. Dark hair, blue eyes, his cheeks covered in a short stubble. Still looking at his reflection in the water, he reached up to touch his face, slowly exploring the new, unknown textures of human skin and hair. He was wearing a beige, long coat. A trench coat, he was reminded by a little voice in the back of his head. He must have heard the word before on one of his visits to earth. He frowned lightly, letting his hand drop back on his lap. It worried him that he couldn't remember the exact occasion, location and time that he had heard about this phenomenon. Not too long ago he would have remembered anything he had ever seen, been able to recall the tiniest detail of a memory. But, he realized, the human mind and memory were very limited.

He was distracted from his train of thought as someone sat down next to him on the bench. He looked up, to see a female human who was about the age of Bobby, the man who had been like a father to Dean when his own had passed away. She smiled at him; he quickly glanced down at his reflection in the water again, not knowing how he should respond to this kind of human interaction. He discovered that he was wearing a blue tie. Curiously, he lifted the tie a bit so that he could study it.

"I'm sorry, it's probably not any of my business. But aren't you cold?" The voice of the female sounded concerned.

Castiel blinked and dropped the tie, thinking about the question. Actually, he was cold. He glanced at his fingers, which he now noticed were swollen and red.
"I am," he answered truthfully.

"Maybe you should consider wearing another coat then," the female said. She sounded friendly. "It's really cold for this time of the year, and that fabric seems so thin."

Again, the woman was right, Castiel realized as he studied his coat a bit closer. The fabric was indeed very thin. It was probably designed as some kind of summer jacket.

"Unfortunately, I do not own a coat fit for this weather," Castiel replied.

"Then why don't you buy one?" the human suggested.

Castiel was silent for a moment. He was aware that this whole society revolved around money and property, so he imagined that if he told her that he owned absolutely nothing at the moment, it would invoke negative reactions.

It was the truth, though.

"I… I can't buy anything. I don't have any money," he admitted, preparing himself for a negative remark of some sorts, like one of the profanities he had gotten thrown upon him when he was only trying to cross a street.

The female just frowned slightly.

"How come? You seem like a decent young man. Did you gamble your money?"

"What? Gamble? I… No. I do not gamble." Castiel sighed and rested his head in the palms of his hands. "It's… my family. I broke the rules thus they took everything I had. I will get it back, eventually, though. They're not bad… people."

The woman's frowned deepened. "So just because you made a mistake, they robbed you of everything you ever had? I can tell you one thing, dear. Those are not good people." She put a comforting hand on Castiel's shoulder. He was not used to this kind of closeness though, and flinched back, causing the woman to quickly retreat her hand. "Don't you have anyone else to go back to?" she asked softly.

Castiel shook his head, staring back at his own reflection. The look he saw on his face reminded him of what Dean had looked like the past few months. Worn-out and miserable. He suddenly felt very guilty that he couldn't be there for him anymore.

"There is one person, though," he said softly. "But I do not think it's possible for me to see him. I don't know how to reach him."

"Don't you know where he lives?"

"I think I do." Castiel remembered the signs he always saw when he entered the city. "He lives in Lawrence, Kansas."

The woman laughed softly. "That's quite the city, dear. Do you have an address?"

Castiel dug in his memory but couldn't possibly remember the street Dean lived on. He shrugged helplessly.

"I'm sorry, I don't. I could probably find it if I were there, but I just can't seem to remember now."

The woman clearly hesitated before continuing.

"I was going to visit my kids in Osage City today anyway. If you want, I can take you with me and drop you off in Lawrence. It isn't that much of a detour."

Castiel looked at her, his eyes widened.

"That… that would be amazing. You're an incredibly kind woman. Thank you."

She smiled.

"It's all right. I'll just be dropping you off, though. You'll have to look for your friend yourself."

"I understand," said Castiel, nodding, a hesitant smile appearing on his face. He had never had a friend before; now Dean, even though the female didn't know him, was equated to a friend of his, he suddenly felt immensely proud. "When are we leaving?"

The woman chuckled and rose from the bench. "We can leave now, if you want. I don't think my children will mind if I show up a bit earlier than expected."

Castiel followed her to her car, which appeared to be an example of what he remembered Dean calling a 'Tin Snail'. It was small and red and Castiel loved it immediately.

"It's not much, but it'll get us to our destination," the woman spoke as she saw him eying the car.

"I think your car looks wonderful," Castiel said in return.

"Right," the woman chuckled, and got in the car. Castiel just stood there for a second, wondering what he should do. Yes, he should get in the car, that much was obvious. But how was he supposed to open the door without making fool of himself? He cursed himself for not paying attention when the female or anyone else for that matter had opened the door of a car. Slowly, he reached out to a silver object that stuck out of the door, and turned it. It was not very effective. He tried to turn it the other way around and then noticed that he was supposed to push it down. The door opened, and Castiel got in the car. The human was eying him questioningly.

"Are you having second thoughts?"

"No, I am not. Why are you asking?" replied Castiel curiously, and then, a slight hint of fear popping up in his stomach, he added, "Are you?"

"No, I'm not having second thoughts. I just thought you were, because you were lingering outside for so long." She started the car and slowly drove away from the parking spot.

"I see." Castiel looked through the window. They were going faster now. Not as fast as he was accustomed to by using his wings of course – but for him and his new human body, it was a thrilling experience.

"You should fasten your seat belt," the woman pointed out after a minute.

Castiel blinked.

"My what? Oh… wait, yes. Of course." He looked to his right, searching for the seat belt that should be around there somewhere. He fortunately found it faster than expected, and in no time the belt was secured. Again, Castiel felt somewhat proud; he thought that maybe being human wouldn't be so difficult after all.

It was silent for a while. Castiel enjoyed himself by looking outside, curiously taking in all the different landscapes that flew by. Sometimes they would pass a village, but most of the time they were in different stages of 'The Middle of Nowhere' – again a definition he had heard Dean mutter to himself on long road trips. He had never paid much attention to his surroundings when they were on such trips. He would just silently watch Dean, attentive to every single detail of his face and sometimes globally reading his mind to see whether it was still safe for him to drive. His breath hitched as he thought back to the time that his protection hadn't been enough. He still blamed himself for overlooking the truck that seemed to have come out of nowhere and crashed two of the things that his human had loved most – his fiancé and his car.

"What's your name?" The voice of the woman suddenly broke through Castiel's thoughts. He turned back to face the woman, whose gaze was still locked on the road.

"I am Castiel," he answered, and nearly added that he was an angel of the Lord before remembering that wasn't exactly true at the moment.

"Oh, so you're the angel of Saturday?" the woman asked with a small smile. Castiel stiffened for a second, until he realized she was probably only joking. In her eyes, there would probably be no such thing as angels.

"You might be confusing me with Cassiel," he said softly, allowing his eyes to wander off to the side window again. This was not the first time he had been mistaken for the great Cassiel. "He is the angel of Saturday, as well as one of the seven Archangels. My name was destined for a mere Guardian Angel."

"Oh." The woman was silent for a long moment. Then, she flicked her eyes over to Castiel, who was staring outside, his eyes unfocused. She smiled kindly, and continued, "Well, I actually think Castiel's a beautiful name. This world could use a few more of your 'mere' Guardian Angels."

Those simple words touched Castiel more than they should have. His eyes started burning, and he swallowed with difficulty. Eventually, he managed a small, but sincere smile.
"Thank you."

"My name is Martha, by the way," she added. Castiel nodded.

The rest of the trip went by in comfortable silence. After a bit more time riding in The Middle of Nowhere, he saw a sign that he recognized. It stated that the city Lawrence was only 20 miles away from them. His breathing accelerated in excitement. Castiel kept closely monitoring the signs they passed. The distance to Dean became smaller and smaller until they finally stopped at a square he vaguely recognized.

They both got out of the car.

"So, here we are," the woman named Martha said. Castiel nodded. "Do you think you can handle it from here by yourself?"
"Yes, I believe so." Castiel looked around, hoping to see something he recognized. He wasn't very successful. He looked back at the human in front of him, and smiled another small smile. "I am immensely grateful for the opportunity you offered me. Even though I can't give you anything in return at this moment, I will never forget this."

Martha chuckled. "It's all right, Castiel. It was my pleasure. I hope you'll find your friend soon and that things work out for you."
Having said that, she stepped back in the car. Honking once and waving, she drove away from Castiel, who once again looked around and wondered where he should go next.

I'd like to thank the four lovely persons who already favourited and / or followed this story! Really, thank you so much. You can't believe how happy a small notification popping up in my mailbox, saying someone followed my story makes me. And a special shout-out to dEnIsE tHe StRaNgE, who reviewed my story! I hope Chapter 2 didn't disappoint you. I altered the overall spacing for this chapter; do you think it's better now?

The next chapter will have the song Angels And Demons by Front Porch Step as prologue.