Book Two: Cas, Meet Donna

Donna made a face when the first thing that happened when they walked out of the TARDIS was that she heard the buzzing of a wasp nearby. And she kept that face on until she had double-checked that the buzzing came from a nest, not from a flippin' giant wasp like the one they'd just fought off with Agatha Christie.

Once she saw that everything looked normal—well, as normal as things could be with the Doctor—she relaxed and turned to face him as he came out of the TARDIS with her. "So," she said brightly, "where are we, then?"

The Doctor looked around, making a show of it—though Donna had seen him glance at the TARDIS screen and knew he had cheated. He just liked to be dramatic and make people think he was a super-alien who could tell place and time just by sticking his finger in the wind. And sometimes—sometimes—Donna let him get away with it. After all, she was starting to see just how much he needed cheering up. All the time.

So she didn't call him out on his dramatic nonsense as he spun in place and then declared, "Looks like we're in Kansas again, Donna."

Donna smiled when she heard it. Last time they'd been in Kansas, they had run into a teenage boy that she'd then helped raise in the past—and she'd actually been looking forward to seeing him again. "How long since the last time, though?" she asked. "Are we, like, in Kansas during the age when the Native Americans didn't have to worry about all the settlers or are we in Kansas in the thirty-ninth century or something?"

"Good question," the Doctor said with a smile. "Not really that different from the last time we were here, to tell the truth. Looks like a little over ten years since that incident with the angels."

Ten years. Donna's eyebrows were high as she mulled that one over. A lot could happen in ten years, especially with a boy who even at a young age was fighting off creatures like the weeping angels. "Well then," she said, dusting her hands off, "let's see what there is to see, shall we?"

The Doctor smiled and gestured for her to lead the way—not that Donna knew where she was going. They seemed to have landed in the middle of nowhere, and they'd been walking for about ten minutes before they saw the first sign of civilization: an abandoned farm building. Donna and the Doctor shared a wordless glance before they headed for the building, but before they'd even reached it, they knew they were on the right track when they could hear raised voices.

"I'm telling you, Cas, none of it makes any sense!" The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Donna, but much older—so she had to look to the Doctor for him to nod confirmation and mouth of "Dean" before she dared to put a name to the voice.

The second voice, however, wasn't one that either of them recognized: "That's the plan—"

"Screw the plan!" Dean shouted over the second voice. "You and I both know it's not right. You're supposed to be the good guys, and you're trying to stage a cock fight between me and my brother just to give you some pawns in your game!"

"That's not—"

"It is, and you know it!"

Donna and the Doctor shared a look, both of them raising eyebrows so that they looked like mirror images of each other. Whoever Dean was talking to, it was obvious they did not get along. "Any idea what that's about?" Donna whispered, one hand cupped to her mouth.

The Doctor shrugged openly. "One way to find out."

Donna grinned and took the lead, only waiting long enough for the Doctor to sonic the lock on the door before she strolled in, grinning widely. "What seems to be the problem here, boys?"

Once she was inside, however, she was nearly taken aback when she saw the scene. She could recognize Dean—somewhat—but he was a far cry from the teenager or the little boy that she'd known. He was fully grown—and what's more, he'd drawn himself up to his full height while he was arguing with the man across from him, so Donna could see just how much he'd grown.

The other man was almost as tall as Dean was, though there was something about him that Donna couldn't quite place. She didn't know if it was the long coat or the look in his eye, but something had all the alarm bells going off in her head that this wasn't a normal person.

Not that it took a genius of the Doctor's caliber to know that anything Dean was facing wasn't normal. Even Donna knew that much.

"Doc!" Dean's entire demeanor changed, and he broke into a grin. "Perfect timing! You can help me convince Cas here that letting someone else walk around in my skin is a bad idea."

"Why on Earth would you do that?" the Doctor asked, looking perfectly mystified—which was a relief to Donna, since after everything she'd seen with the Doctor, she wouldn't be surprised if there was some alien race out there that was perfectly fine with being skinwalkers or something like that. Might be where the old horror stories came from, now that she thought about it.

Dean gestured at the Doctor with a look of triumph and then turned to face his friend—apparently Cas—with both hands outstretched. "See? Even the time-traveling alien can see it's stupid."

"Heaven isn't interested in the opinion of an outsider," Cas replied, and Donna was once again struck by how different he was. She didn't know what it was about him, but listening to him speak definitely had her convinced that he was more powerful than he let on.

…And what was that about Heaven?

The Doctor must have caught that reference too, but if he had, he wasn't saying anything about it. "Well," he said, in that drawn-out way of his that was both endearing and annoying—like pretty much everything else about him, in Donna's opinion—"maybe Heaven should think about expanding its horizons. And who are you, exactly, claiming to be from Heaven itself?"

Cas met the Doctor's gaze. "I don't claim to be from Heaven," he said in a tone that suggested he was offended but without the full emotion behind it. "I am."

"No, really," Donna said, snorting out a laugh.

"Really," Cas said flatly.

Donna blinked. He was serious. She turned to look at Dean, who didn't look like he was laughing, and she shook her head. "What is he talking about, Dean?"

Dean let out a long breath. "Right. Introductions. Guess you haven't met him yet—or something. No idea where we are in the timeline for you." He gestured between the other three people in the room. "Cas, this is the Doctor and Donna. Doctor, Donna, meet Cas. He's a pain in my—"

"Yeah, we heard the shouts from all the way at the TARDIS," Donna said. "Nice to meet you."

Cas sighed but tipped his head in acknowledgement. "Hello."

"Don't just stand there like an idiot," Dean said, rolling his eyes at Cas. "Introduce yourself."

"You already did," Cas pointed out.

"I gave your name."

Cas pinched the bridge of his nose, but when Dean crossed his arms and gave Cas a look that clearly said he wasn't getting out of the social niceties, he offered Donna his hand. "Castiel, Angel of the Lord."

Donna had been ridiculously entertained watching Dean lay down the law with Cas—right up until she heard his full title. And then, she couldn't help but look between Dean and the Doctor, surprised when Dean seemed to take the revelation in stride even though Deborah had erased her memory from Dean and the Doctor when she saved them from the weeping angels.

But the Doctor, on the other hand, was blinking more than normal, and he had a strange expression on his face as he rubbed his forehead.

That couldn't be a good sign.