Author's Note:
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Sam smiled genuinely at Charlie as they walked into the mansion, heading for the living room space he said "Thanks for being so calm,"
"Don't thank me yet," she laughed nervously. "Who are you guys, anyway? Why do you have Cas? Why are you living in MacLeod's old place?" She was one of those people who talked when she was anxious, Dean could tell already.
"I'm Sam Winchester, my older brother Dean, our dad Bobby, and that's Jet." He pointed at each of them as he spoke; Charlie followed his aim and smirked a little at the end.
"No special title for Jet?"
"I'm my own title," Jet grinned at her, "And for your other questions; we have Cas because he was here when we got here. We're got here because I inherited MacLeod's old place."
"Why did you inherit it?" She was quick to match Jet's speaking speed.
"I did work for him in town."
Dean watched her chest heave a little as if her emotions just beat the shit out of her internally. She clenched her jaw and took another stressed breath, "Okay… how long have you been working for him?"
"Well he's dead now so I'm not working for him anymore. But I did last summer and a little before that."
She nodded and relaxed her shoulders, "So you didn't know Cas before, then?"
"Nope, not even a little." Jet looked over at the Winchester-Singer family, "We weren't living in town yet when he disappeared."
Charlie dropped onto a couch stared exhaustedly at the ceiling for a few seconds to let the information sink in. "Alright so what do you guys know about Cas?"
"Castiel Dimitri Novak," Sam started like he might be reading it out of a textbook, "From what I could tell by his Facebook page he was a talented singer and a lot of people cared about him, including you. We know he didn't know he saved you, we know his older brother's name is Michael, and we know he worked for MacLeod four years ago before disappearing."
Charlie nodded slowly, "So you got some basics, but what about now? What do you know about this Cas?"
"He's still the same guy," Dean added quietly as he sat down, allowing space for Castiel to sit with him. "There are some differences but deep down it's him."
"Differences like wings?" Charlie asked as she looked at the stray feathers about.
"That and he can't talk much,"
"He can't talk?" She stared at him in disbelief, "Okay, why does he have wings? Why can't he talk? What's –"
"Stop," Jet cut her off and to everyone's surprised she listened. Dean could tell she was overwhelmed with the whole thing; she probably expected to maybe find Cas in captivity or maybe with a little PTSD but nothing like what she'd just found. He felt bad because it wasn't going to get much better after they explained it.
Charlie took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes tiredly, "Okay, okay, sorry. I just… I've been looking for him for ages."
Castiel looked up at her and furrowed his brow again, he squeaked and looked at Dean with tears welling in his eyes. Dean wished he could figure out what Cas was thinking or what he wanted to say, he'd find a better way to comfort Cas than a smile and a touch. But that's all he could do, a firm squeeze of Castiel's shoulder and a reassuring smile that couldn't go as far as he wanted it to.
"He really can't talk…" Charlie whispered, her pain too real and Dean wished more than anything he could forget meeting Cas' old friend. But that wasn't possible, he knew he'd have to deal with the situation and explaining everything was the only way to start.
"No, but he communicates," Bobby spoke up when none of the other three could find words. "From what the boys have told me I can tell he's doing a lot better from what he was a few days ago."
"You found him a few days ago?" Charlie's heartbroken expression didn't change.
"Yeah," Dean nodded as he tried to comfort Castiel who continued to try and tell him something. Cas didn't squeak but a near constant whine came from him, he didn't sit still and soon his wings started to fidget and flutter in his irritation. Dean reached over to pet his agitated wings but they didn't stop despite the touch. "Cas, it's okay." He said soothingly, hoping it'd do something to help.
Castiel sighed and turned to Charlie again, Dean couldn't see the look he gave her but judging from the tears the welled up in her eyes again he knew it wasn't helpful.
"Oh Cas," she held back a sob and covered her mouth, "I'm so sorry I didn't find you…"
Castiel looked at Dean then slowly moved over to her, his wings folding up behind his back and lowered. He tried to wipe her cheek dry and chirped softly, little guttural sounds following as he leaned in to hug her. Charlie let him, holding still at first but within a few seconds she dropped onto him and held on tightly.
"I'm sorry," she whispered again and Cas nudged her cheek with his, nothing like what he did with Dean but still a familiar gesture.
"It's okay," Cas managed to say, his grasp of speaking getting stronger each time he attempted it.
Dean and the others stayed quiet and waited, it was the least they could do to show some respect for the reunion in front of them. Jet leaned down next to Dean's ear after a few seconds and muttered to him, "We haven't even told her the worst parts yet."
"I know," Dean replied just as quietly.
"I think I'm ready to hear this," Charlie said moments later, finally letting go of Cas. She did her best to smile for him as he studied her face.
"Is Michael coming too?" Dean asked, attempting to mask his mild concerns. An angry older brother wouldn't hesitate to blame a bunch of strangers who happened to be in the same house his little brother was held captive in. At least, Dean wouldn't anyway.
However Charlie shook her head, "No, I didn't tell him I was following you guys." She glanced around at the group she now found herself in, "He didn't want to hear my stories of paranoia about you guys, said there are a lot of people with the nickname Cas and I should just take a break."
"Well you're a workaholic, it seems." Bobby chuckled, "Not sure if that'll turn out to be a good thing or bad though."
"I found Cas, how could it be a bad thing?" Charlie smiled and put her hand on Cas' shoulder, "He's worth whatever trouble I have to go through."
Dean nodded his agreement; her logic sounded a lot like his own. "He seems to recognize you, at least a little, I'd like to say it'll only get better but there's a bit of a story to tell."
"Do it," she insisted and wiped her eyes to make sure they were dry, "I'm ready."
A lot of care went into telling the story of how they discovered the basement lab; even more went into explaining Castiel's history in it. Sam did a lot of the scientific talk while Dean covered how Cas was doing mentally and emotionally. Jet's two cents were added a few times but mostly he left it to them.
Sam told them about the science MacLeod had been experimenting with and the types of things that Castiel's DNA was mixed with. He talked about the lab and its setup, the screens and the cages they could see. He went into detail about the computers and what information it had, the videos that were documenting scenarios and of course what those scenarios were. He talked about Castiel's cloning process and the copies that were made, what went into them and how they were tests to see what the real thing could be spliced with effectively.
Charlie's eyes were wide as she listened, it was obvious she was an intellectual by the questions she asked or the comments she made. Her mind was capable of wrapping around the information and even more able to connect the dots given to her. She understood Castiel's conditioning, how he might react to his own image and his slow descent into animalistic behaviour. She understood that a manufactured, untested drug was used on him and might've been the cause for his loss of speech.
It was one thing to understand the situation, it was another to understand that it happened to someone that she knew. Charlie's eyes didn't stay dry but she kept her composure, her fingers intertwined with Cas' and she held on to steady herself. Imagining the torture he was put through was breaking her as much as it was breaking Dean or the others.
Bobby kept a straight, stern face but Dean could see in his eyes that it was hard to hear. From Bobby's perspective Castiel was just a kid when he went missing, naïve and kindhearted traits were twisted in a mad scientist's world and the Cas they saw with them was the one that managed to escape. A Castiel with wings, who chirped and groaned like an animal, and could grow a second set of teeth; he wasn't quite the same.
Charlie was open minded to the concept of fictional situations happening for real though her confidence wavered when it came to the mentioning of the dreams.
"He connects to you in your sleep…?" She asked hesitantly.
"Well he tried to show us what happened to him because he wanted to make a connection," Dean explained, one of the experts on the matter. "He doesn't have a lot of control over it, it mostly happens from his will to communicate with us. Cas talked to me in the nightmares, actually. Your Cas, the one who remembers everything."
Charlie's eyes lit up a little, the first sign of real hope Dean saw in her face since she spotted Cas the first time that day. "What did he say?"
"He said he was sorry for the dreams, that he can't always control himself and that he's trying." He summarized and could tell by the slight bit of relaxation in her shoulders that it was enough. "Cas is still Cas, he's just gotta get through some barriers."
Charlie turned and hugged Cas who hadn't moved from her side, burying her face against his shoulder as she tried not to cry again. "You're the strongest guy I know, Cas." She whispered just loud enough that Dean could hear it. "I'm sure you can do it."
"So the basement's full of monsters, huh?" Bobby said after a few moments of silence for Charlie and Cas.
"And Cas clones," Sam added, "though I'm not sure what happened to them, we didn't go to the room and check."
"We actually haven't done much looking into shit on this yet," Jet pointed out casually, "like we said, we've only been here for a few days and it's a lot to take in at once."
"I can understand that," Charlie nodded and rubbed her eyes again, "So… that's it? That's the current Cas situation?"
"Yeah, so far." Dean shrugged and leaned back, itching to ask about what Charlie was going to do with the info but unsure if it'd be too much too soon.
Jet on the other hand didn't have the filter, "So what's your plan then, Charlie? You know where he is and what's going on with him, sorta."
"Isn't it obvious?" She raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm going to read more about it and see if there's anything we can do for him."
"You're… not going to try and take him to Michael?" Dean asked hopefully.
"No, this is a big place and Cas is already familiar with it. Not to mention I can tell it'd be almost impossible to get him away from you." She smiled nervously as Cas grunted once at her before scooting back to Dean's side. "Besides… I'm not sure I should even tell Michael yet; I don't know how he'd react or handle Cas like this. I think he'd freak."
"Great," Jet smirked and pulled out two spare keys from his pocket, "I had extras made, looks like you're staying here then." He tossed her and Bobby each one, both catching them with little fumbling.
Charlie looked at it quietly for a few seconds before a relieved smile crept onto her face. "Thanks."
"You don't have to stay but you're more than welcome to," Sam offered softly, "I think Cas would love to have you here."
"I think I'd love to just be around him again," she glanced at Cas with a look of acceptance, "At least he's alive."
"That's the spirit, now let's get to work on that shit outside guys." Jet headed out the door with as much energy as he could muster. Dean laughed a little and followed his lead, some mundane labour sounded like a nice escape from thinking about Cas' fate.
"Did you want me to help you find a room, Charlie?" Sam asked as he got up, "Or the basement?"
"For now I think I'll just let this all sink in, maybe hang around wherever Cas goes." She said sheepishly, "It's all a bit much, you know? This morning I came back home with nothing but cold leads and vanishing ideas, next thing I know I'm sitting in Cas' presence. He's alive but he can't talk and he looks… different."
Sam nodded and glanced to the door where Dean and Jet had paused to wait for him, "You care a lot about Cas, were the two of you together before?"
"What?" Charlie laughed and quickly shook her head, "No, he wasn't my type and I wasn't his. We were just friends, we hung out on weekends and marathoned geeky shows no one else would watch with me." Her hands tightened into fists as she relived the old memories in order to repeat them, "He loved to sing… You know he used to have stage fright? The first time he sang in front of anyone was an accident; he was overtired from a project and just started singing during lunch. It was awesome though he ran away crying."
Charlie stifled another laugh while she spoke, Dean returned to the couch and sat down again, Jet stayed by the door. "Was he going to head off to college?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, he was applying to all kinds of musical scholarships and colleges around, after he'd gone missing Michael got a few acceptance letters to some of the best ones in town. Cas was the star of our school's choir and he was awesome at the piano though he loved the alto sax more. I didn't have the heart to tell him his saxophone skills weren't as good as his pianist fingers."
"Band kid, who knew," Dean smirked and ruffled Cas' hair, his wingman sitting and listening to Charlie talk just as much as the rest of them.
"Everyone loved him," she reminisced distantly, a nostalgic sort of smile tugging at her lips. "I mean he had his down sides, he was a bit of a diva when it came to singing and he tended to jump to conclusions a lot. He picked fights over stupid things and caused a lot of drama, but overall he was such a great guy."
"Well we were all our own brand of trouble in high school," Jet commented absently, like he didn't want to really associate with what Cas used to be. Maybe he hadn't wanted to connect what he knew about Cas to something that wasn't around anymore. It wasn't easy to see what's become of something beautiful, especially if it'd been scarred in many ways. Dean would never think that Cas' scars weren't beautiful, but he understood the sentiment. It was something you never wanted to see happen, not in real life anyway.
Charlie sighed and looked around the room as a way of escape from the reality of the conversation, "Does he like it in here?"
Sam nodded as he followed her gaze, "Well he absolutely adores flying and grass, but he's okay in here as long as you keep him away from anything that smells like MacLeod, we learned that the hard way."
"I learned that the hard way," Dean pouted, "he hated the pants I found."
"Hate is too mild for what that was," Jet snickered, "But yeah, it was pretty distressing for him."
A loud grumbling sound came from Charlie's general direction and she placed a hand over her stomach, "Can we get food? I kinda spent all day following you guys I didn't eat anything…"
Cas squealed happily and took her hand, leading her toward the kitchen without a second thought.
"Oh, you'll show her where it is." Bobby grumbled from his armchair, Dean figured that there was a story involved with that complaint but didn't ask.