Fic: Unraveling (Part 1)
Dec. 11th, 2011 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dauntperplexity[Masterlist]
“Cas? Cas Singer?”
“Oh no,” Cas whispered. He knew that voice anywhere, he just never thought he’d hear it at work. The sound of it made his cheeks begin to turn a deep red. He wanted to bury his face in the stacks of papers that covered his desk. He settled for burying his face in his hands. He hoped that the person looking for him would just go away. He knew that he wasn’t that lucky.
“Cas? Anyone know where’s Cas Singer?”
“He’s over here.”
Cas looked up and saw his coworker, Dean Winchester, standing and waving his hand at the source of his irritation and embarrassment. “Dean, please don’t,” Cas whispered.
“Cas, who’s the babe?”
“She’s my sister,” he mumbled.
“Sister?” Dean repeated. “Blonde?”
“Yeah,” Cas sighed. He waited for his sister’s steps to reach him. He was not prepared for this type of surprise. A second later, she was at his desk.
“Cas? Didn’t you hear me calling for you?”
“I heard you, Jo,” Cas replied. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m visiting you.” She sat down on his desk, shifting the neat piles that Cas had on it.
Cas swatted his sister on the leg. “Off the desk,” he said. He watched Jo jump off and stand right next to him. He grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her in the direction of the elevators. “You can’t be here, Joanna.” He emphasized his frustration with her by using her full name.
“Oh, Lucas, calm down,” she replied, easily deflecting. She pulled her hand out of her older brother’s grasp. “I just wanted to see where you work.”
“Well, you’ve see it, now you have to go.” He started to push her toward the elevator doors.
Jo stepped out of the way and Cas stumbled. She spun around fast enough to catch her brother. “When is your lunch break?”
“I already took it.”
Jo pouted, disappointed. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Cas saw Dean running toward them. He held something in his hand. “Hey, Cas, are you taking your lunch break right now?”
“Apparently,” Cas sighed, somehow feeling like Dean had done that on purpose. “Unless you need my help.” He really needed a reason to stay. He was already imagining how the conversations with his sister would go.
“Go and have lunch with your sister,” Dean insisted. He looked at Jo and held out his hand. “Dean Winchester.”
“Jo Singer, nice to meet you.”
“Same here.” He let go of her hand. “Well, you should go before Crowley starts looking for you. This has to be the first lunch break you’ve taken in like a year. At least. Huh.” He handed the thing he was holding over to Castiel. Then he shrugged and headed back toward his desk.
Castiel opened up what Dean gave him and saw that it was his tan trench coat. He felt like Dean was trying to get rid of him. He slipped the coat on.
Jo pressed the button for the elevator. She didn’t say a word to her brother. A soft ping echoed and they stepped into the open doors. They were the only ones in it. “A year?” she asked.
“I haven’t been hungry.”
“Well, you are today,” Jo said. “And you’re buying.”
Cas sighed. “I figured as much.” They got down to the lobby and he waited for Jo to step out first. He opened the front door of the lobby and waited for his sister to step out before following. Then he started down one of the sidewalks.
Jo caught up with him and walked in stride. “So…” she said. She was never really comfortable with silence especially between her and her brother.
“So what are you really doing here?” He slid his hands into his pockets.
“What?” Jo asked, offended. She wrapped her arm around one of her brother’s. “I can’t come and visit my big brother at work?”
“You can,” Cas replied. “You could have warned me.”
“You enjoyed the surprise. And I wanted to come visit. What other reason would I have?”
“So it’s a big coincidence that I’ve had about thirty missed calls from mom and dad in the past week.” He looked over to his sister and smirked.
“They’re worried, Cas,” Jo replied. She unconsciously squeezed her brother’s arm tighter. “You’re showing up on more front pages. They just want to make sure that you are safe.”
“Tell them to stop worrying.”
“I can’t do that because that would be quite hypocritical of me.”
“Jo.”
“I’m worried about you too. You’re flying all over the world fighting villains and nature and evil. Soon you’ll be popping up on the front page of the Star Gazette.”
Cas knew Jo was taking a cheap shot by naming the paper he worked for. “Crowley doesn’t care about that stuff.”
Jo rolled her eyes and continued to talk, ignoring everything her brother had said. “Mom and dad. We don’t want to see your face—”
“I’m not,” Cas replied.
“Fine. Castiel or whatever the newspapers are calling you. It doesn’t matter because you’re the same person.”
“Joanna.”
“I don’t like worrying about you.”
Cas swung his sister around and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry that I’m worrying you,” he whispered. He kissed her on the crown of her head. “But I feel better knowing that by doing all of this, I’m keeping the world safe. I’m keeping my family safe.”
Jo wrapped her arms around her brother. It was the first hug they shared in a long time. “But what happens when all of the secrets come out?”
“They won’t.”
Jo pulled away from her brother. “Right, because these glasses on your face are enough.” She reached up and pulled the glasses off of Cas’s face.
“Stop that,” Cas said, snatching the glasses back. He wiped the lenses and put the glasses back on. “People might recognize me.”
“You don’t stick around your rescues long enough for people to see you. That’s if you even make yourself visible. You need a mask or something. I’ll make you one,” Jo said with a laugh. Just as quickly as it came, the smile disappeared and Jo became serious. “But what happens if someone does. Recognize you, I mean.”
“Then I’ll still keep my family safe.”
Jo let out a loud sigh and continued to walk down the sidewalk. “Mom and dad won’t be happy.”
“I know. But I’ll do what I have to do to protect the people I care about.”
“I know,” Jo replied. She reached over and patted her brother on the stomach. “Mom said she knows you haven’t been eating enough. She said she can tell from the crappy pictures on the newspapers. Mom and dad said I have to make sure you eat something.”
“What does that mean?” Cas asked.
“It means, that in addition to taking you out to lunch, I’m living with you for a month.”
“Jo—”
“Don’t, Cas,” she said, stopping her brother from saying anything else. “I’m staying with you for the next month, maybe two, and cooking for you.”
“I don’t need to eat.”
“You want to tell mom that?” She crossed her arms over her chest, challenging her brother.
Cas knew that he couldn’t win. He sighed. “So, what’s for dinner tonight?”
Jo smiled and walked ahead of her brother. Cas shook his head following after her.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
Almost an hour later, Cas made his way back to his office, after handing over his spare apartment key and giving Jo directions to the place. He sat back in his desk and took off his trench coat. He folded it up and put it into the bottom drawer of his desk.
He was at his desk for one minute when a shadow was cast over him. He looked up to see Dean leaning against the side of his desk. Somehow it didn’t bother him as much when he did it. It probably had to do with the fact that Dean didn’t mess up the organization of everything like Jo did. “Hello, Dean.”
Dean tucked the pencil that was in his hand behind his ear. “So, how was lunch with your sister?”
“Good.”
Dean crossed his arms over his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a sister, Cas?”
If Cas didn’t know any better, he would have thought that Dean was offended, or at least hurt. “I didn’t think it was important.” He didn’t think that Dean would actually care. They worked on articles together. He didn’t think that there was anything more to their relationship than that.
“It’s your family. Why wouldn’t it be important?”
“I just never had a reason to bring them up.”
“Embarrassing family members?”
“Quite the opposite, actually. Barring the little scene from earlier today, I’m the one doing most of the embarrassing.” He could feel himself blushing. He had no idea why he was suddenly divulging so much information to Dean. Sure, they had been partners for a couple of years, but this is the most personal he’d been with the other man.
“Aw, Cas,” Dean said. He clapped a hand onto Cas’s shoulder. “You aren’t that bad. Clumsy. Quiet. Too freakishly smart to be here.”
“I like writing,” Cas said, needing to defend himself.
“But not embarrassing,” Dean continued, as if Cas hadn’t said anything. He squeezed the shoulder then let go.
“Thanks.” For some reason, that was enough reassurance for Cas.
“Which begs the question,” he said, leaning over toward Cas. “What other secrets are you keeping from me?”
Cas’s eyes widened to the size of golf balls. He did not want Dean digging into his life. “I—”
“Singer! Winchester! My office. Now.”
Cas had never been happier hearing his boss’s voice. Dean usually made him uncomfortable, but this was a different kind of discomfort. “We should go,” he said.
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. “Before Crowley calls the dogs on us.”
“He has dogs?”
“Probably. He seems like the type to have a dozen Yorkies or something.”
“Yorkies?”
“They’re probably evil.”
Dean smiled and Cas found himself mirroring the action. “Guys.” The two of them looked up and saw their coworker Ash coming toward them. “Crowley’s waiting for the both of you.”
“I guess he is,” Dean replied. “We should go.” He stood up and adjusted everything on Cas’s desk that he might have moved.
Cas stood up and followed Dean as he walked toward Crowley’s office. Dean opened the door and Cas stepped in first.
“What took you so long?” Crowley asked as soon as Dean closed the door behind him.
Dean and Cas looked at each other and sighed. They took their seats in front of Crowley’s desk without another word.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
After about twenty minutes, Crowley had finished giving the two of them details to their next assignment. “Well, get to it,” Crowley said. Dean and Cas stood up and headed toward the door. “Not you,” he said, stopping them from leaving.
Both of them turned around. “Who are you talking to?” Dean asked.
“You. Cas, get to proofing.”
Cas walked out of Crowley’s office leaving Dean and their boss alone.
“I should go help him,” Dean said. He felt bad that Cas was starting work on something without him. They were partners and he didn’t like when Cas pulled more weight on projects than he did.
“Have a seat, Dean.” Dean tentatively sat down that he had just vacated a few seconds ago. “I have a special assignment for you.”
“Special how?”
“Dark Angel.”
“Who?” Dean asked.
Crowley reached into his desk drawer and pulled out three newspapers. He laid them out on his desk and pushed them toward Dean. “The one that everyone is calling Dark Wings. Isn’t that the name of something already?”
“A cartoon. And he was a duck.”
“We’ll we’re changing it. Something more mysterious.”
Dean picked up one of the newspapers, looking at the picture on the front page. He couldn’t help but criticize the work of it. It was unfocused and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be looking at. “Dark Wings isn’t mysterious?” He set that down and looked at the next paper. The quality of work on it wasn’t any better. He didn’t even bother to look at the last one.
“It’s mysterious, but everyone is calling him that. I want us to be different.”
“So we’re calling him an angel,” he deadpanned. He felt like it was a bit blasphemous.
“Well, unless you want to call him Charcoal Eagle.”
“I don’t want to call him anything. Every other newspaper and their moms are writing about this guy. Why do we need to?”
“Why do you seem so uninterested about this man?”
“He’s saving the world. He’s not a celebrity.” Although, he did admire the good the man, or angel, was doing, he hated that the newspapers were exploiting him. “I think he just wants to keep his life private.”
“Dean.”
“What do you want, Crowley? Why am I here and not Cas?”
“Because I want pictures. Better than these specks that could easily be a duck.” He stacked the newspapers on top of each other then threw them off to the side. “I don’t want his life story. People don’t care. I just need pictures snapped.”
“And if I say no?”
“You won’t.”
“We’re not going to make up stories about him and all that, are we?” He didn’t want to be a part of this if they were going to villainize him.
“No. His picture sells papers. And the better the pictures, the better my sales will be.”
“You want me to take a picture of a superhero?” Saying it out loud made it real for Dean. Real, but no less ridiculous. “I mean, nobody’s ever snapped a good picture of him. I’m pretty sure that the only people that have actually seen him are the people he’s saved.” The more he kept talking, the more he didn’t want to do the assignment Crowely was bestowing upon him. But he knew that he would eventually say yes. He liked his job too much for Crowley to have to fire him because he didn’t want to take a few pictures. He would rather have been fired because he wasn’t able get something done. “So what am I supposed to do?”
“You do whatever you need to do to make me my money. But do what you do best and what I hired you for.”
“I feel like a prostitute.”
“Oh, Dean. Don’t think that. You’re much better than a prostitute,” Crowley said with an obvious smirk on his face.
“Thanks.”
“Now go get my pictures.”
“Do I have a deadline?”
“One week.” Dean stared at Crowley in disbelief. There was no way that he would be able to get as decent of a picture as his boss wanted in a week. “Go now. Time is ticking.”
Dean got up with a sigh. He left Crowley’s office without saying another word because he knew that the words that would come out of his mouth would probably get him fired.
Dean went straight to his cubical and sat down at his desk with a loud sigh. He ran his hands down his face and banged his head against the surface of his desk.
“You look unsettled.”
Dean looked up and saw Cas standing over him. “I am.” Dean waited for Cas to say something in response. The other man just stood there. “Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
“I figured it has something to do with Crowley keeping you in his office.”
“And you don’t want to know anything else?” Dean asked.
“Dean,” Cas sighed. “There was a reason why Crowley made you stay and not me. I’m guessing it has to do with your photography skills.”
“He made it seem like it was some top secret thing, but it’s ridiculous.”
“Okay.” Cas headed back toward his desk.
“If you knew, it’d be easier.”
Cas spun around. He knew that Dean wanted to talk, so he was going to be there for him. “How so?”
“You’d be able to help me.”
“Oh.”
“No,” Dean said quickly when Cas sounded so dejected. “Not that I’m taking advantage of you, Cas. It’s just that we work well together. You keep me settled. I wouldn’t be so stressed out. Can I tell you?”
“Dean,” Cas sighed. “I don’t think I’m supposed to know. “
“I guess not. And there’s no way that I can be vague about it.”
Cas hated seeing Dean unhappy. He wanted to help him if there was a way that he could. “Well, is there anyway that I could provide assistance without you giving me any details about it?”
“I’m not that covert, Cas.”
“Oh.”
“I should’ve just said no,” he said pinching the bridge of his nose. He was already imagining the stress that was going to come from what Crowley asked him to do.
“You can’t say no to Crowley.” He had worked for Crowley enough years to know that his boss was absolute.
“I should’ve made him a deal.”
“I doubt that would have gone over well. It’s like selling your soul to the devil.”
Dean smirked. “That is a very good comparison.” After a couple of seconds, he let out a short laugh. He was feeling better. “Why are you always so helpful, Cas?”
Cas shrugged. “I just like helping people. I’m not saving the world or anything. Just proofing articles and listening to coworkers’ problems.”
Dean didn’t know why, but it bothered him that Cas just called them coworkers. Of course, they hadn’t really talked outside of work, and Cas obviously had a lot about his life that Dean had no idea about, but he thought that they were friends. Anything more than just coworkers. “I’d return the favor, but you never seem to need anyone’s help.”
“Maybe one day you’ll be able to help me.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
Cas took that as the end of their conversation. He walked back to his desk and sat down. He pulled a pen out of his cup holder and returned to looking at the articles that had made their way to his desk at the start of the day.
Dean looked up and saw Cas already back to work. “Is there anything I can help you with now?” he asked.
Cas smiled. “I think that you need to worry about your own work first. Besides, I know you don’t want to be the one editing Ash’s tangents.”
“Next time,” Dean said.
“Next time,” Cas repeated.
The two of them went back to work until it was time to go home.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
That night, back at his apartment, Cas found that his sister had made a meal for them like she had promised. “Did you invite someone over?” Cas said, noticing that there was way too much food for just two people.
Jo stepped out of the kitchen with two plates. She set them on the table. “No. Why?”
“Who are you planning to feed with all this food?” He set down his briefcase and took off his trench coat. He threw it over the back of his couch then walked over to the dining room table. He never knew why he had such a big one when he was the only one in the apartment most of the time.
“You.”
“How much are you expecting me to eat?”
“Most of this.”
“Joanna,” he sighed. As an angel, he didn’t need sustenance the way that humans did, which was why he rarely ate. When he did eat, it would never be enough to fill a human, but it was enough for him. For his mom and sister to be able to notice how skinny his was, he had to not been eating for weeks.
Doing the calculations in his head, it sounded about right.
“Whatever you’re trying to think of so I don’t feed you, stop. You’re eating at least half of this. If not tonight, then you’re eating leftovers for a week.”
“You’re really channeling mom right now,” Cas said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Now sit down and there better be a piece of food in your mouth in the next few seconds or I’m shoving something down your throat.”
“That sounds a little aggressive,” he replied. He took his seat at his normal chair.
Jo walked over to him and grabbed a piece of bread off of a plate in the middle of the table. She placed it on her brother’s plate. “Here. Eat this.”
He grabbed the bread and took a bite out of it. He swallowed it and watched his sister load up his plate with lasagna and salad. “You remember that story mom used to tell us when we were kids? The one about the kids who ate the witch’s candy house. And the witch kept feeding them to make them fat so she could steal their souls.”
“I think you’re blending stories together,” Jo said, making her plate and choosing the seat next to her brother instead of across. “Am I the witch in this story?”
“No. I’m just saying that’s how I feel right now. Like those kids being fed.”
“I’m not trying to make you explode, Cas. I’m just trying to make you healthy.”
“I am healthy.”
“We’re not going to fight about this over dinner,” Jo said, stopping the argument, if they could call it that. She took a bite out of her piece of bread. She grabbed her glass of wine to help wash it down. “So, that was Dean.”
“Yes,” Cas replied, nonchalant. He had no idea why his sister was bringing his coworker up. He took a bite of his lasagna.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was so handsome?”
Cas coughed, a piece of food deciding to get stuck in his throat at that time. He tried to convince himself that the two were not related. He grabbed his water and drank half the glass. When it was safe to talk, he took a breath. “I never took notice. And I didn’t realize you wanted to know.”
“He’s been your partner for almost three years. He seems like a nice guy.”
“He is.”
“So, does he have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t know.” He knew that Dean was always in the company of women and he was always able to get the attention of the females that worked in the same building, but he never knew if Dean actually had a relationship with them.
“How can you not know? You’ve been working with him for three years.”
“We work together, Jo. That’s it. We don’t see each other outside of work.”
“And you don’t talk?” Jo could not believe it. She did not understand how two people could be partnered up and work on basically everything together, but not know a thing about each other.
“Jo, I don’t like lying to people. And if we had conversations where he’d tell me something personal, I’d have to reciprocate. Besides, my life is boring.”
“Except you’re a superhero.”
Cas sighed and put down his fork. “Besides that. Me. Lucas. Lucas Novak. Boring as a box of nails.”
“I don’t think that’s a saying.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You aren’t boring, Cas.”
“You have to say that; you’re my sister.”
Jo wanted to reach across the table and shake her brother. She always hated when he would talk so lowly about himself. “Cas, you’re smart. You care about people. You’re an alien or at least not of this planet. And you have more adventures than anyone could ever dream of. You’re not boring.”
“There are only a handful of people who get to see me that way, Jo.”
“Well, I’m glad that I’m one of them,” she said with a smile.
“Me too.” Cas picked up his fork and finished eating the rest of the salad on his plate. He wasn’t that hungry, but he was going to at least finish what was in front of him. He knew it would make his sister happy.
“Would you mind if I asked Dean out?”
“Would it matter what I said?”
“Yeah, it would.”
“No, I don’t mind,” Cas replied.
“Thanks, Cas.” Jo was contemplating asking Dean out no matter what Cas said, but it was always nice for her to get his approval.
“For?”
“Nothing, Lucas,” she said shaking her head. She ripped off a piece of bread and tossed it into her mouth. “Just eat. Mom’s gonna call in a few hours to make sure that you were fed.”
“I could always lie.”
Jo wanted to laugh out loud at her brother’s suggestion. “You can’t.” There was no way that he’d ever lie to their mother.
“I can’t,” he said with a smile. He looked down at his plate and it took him a couple of minutes to finish everything on it. “Joanna?” he asked. He knew that calling her by her full first name would get a reaction out of her.
Jo glared at her brother. “Don’t call me that.”
He picked up his empty plate and walked over to where Jo was sitting. He leaned over and kissed the crown of her head. “Thank you for cooking dinner.”
“You’re welcome,” Jo said. “And you’re washing the dishes tonight.”
“I know,” he said as he put his plate in the sink.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
The next few days, Cas tried to take most of the workload for the next article that he was working on with Dean because he saw how stressed out Dean was over his secret assignment. Cas wished he could have done more to help, but he still had no idea what Dean’s project entailed.
Five days after Dean got the assignment from Crowley, Cas, Dean, Ash, and a dozen other reporters were stuck in the pen working late for the next edition. Half the bullpen wanted to print one article, while the other half disagreed. It was split down the middle, and since they believed in a democracy in the pen, they wanted the sole person who didn’t cast a vote to make a decision.
At around nine at night, they cornered him as he got out of the bathroom and sat him on a chair in the middle of the open area of the pen. Each side gave their argument for the article to try and convince him theirs was better. Cas wondered when the bullpen had become a courtroom.
Unfortunately, Cas refused to take sides. He liked both articles and both had their share of faults. But that wasn’t the answer that anyone wanted, so they started to argue over him. He slipped out of the line of fire and made his way back to his desk. He needed to finish the article that would have his and Dean’s name on it and he also needed to proofread Victor and Ash’s articles because he said he would.
He finished reading through Victor’s and Ash’s articles when Dean appeared in front of him with a cup of coffee and a few pages of paper in his hand.
“Coffee?” Dean asked, holding out the cup.
“Thank you,” Cas replied, taking the cup from him. Coffee never did anything for him, but the gesture was nice. He reached for his wallet. “How much do—”
“You owe me nothing for a cup of coffee, Cas,” Dean replied.
“Well, thank you again,” Cas replied. He saw the papers in Dean’s hand. “Is that the article?”
“Yeah,” Dean replied and took a seat on the edge of Cas’s desk. “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me what you liked and didn’t like so that we could fix it up and get it printed.”
“Is that cheating?”
“No. It’s smart. Come on, Cas,” Dean pleaded, holding up the article he wanted chosen.
“Dean, I am not going to be the one to make a decision like this.”
“That’s not fair!” Ash yelled, running toward them. “Dean. You are not allowed to ask Cas.”
“Why not?” Dean asked. He stood up and stared down Ash.
Ash backed away, putting enough space between him and Dean that he didn’t feel threatened. “Because Cas is your partner. He’ll choose your side on that fact alone.”
“No, I won’t,” Cas said the same time Dean said, “No, he won’t.”
“Cas will choose this article because it’s better.”
“That article isn’t better,” Ash yelled, causing the arguments to start up again.
Cas wanted to say something so they’d stop fighting, or at least move the fight away from his desk, but he was a quiet person. And Dean and Ash were only getting louder. He sagged into his chair in defeat. His solution was to ignore them the best he could.
It became harder to do that when a crowd started forming around his desk. Times like these, Cas wished he could go invisible and get away. But as unnoticeable as he was, they would definitely notice him disappearing right before their eyes.
He let them argue, finding it wasn’t that difficult for him to read through all the noise. He figured that was the conditions he’d be working in tonight. He hoped that was the worst of it.
He cursed himself for thinking that because as soon as his did, his wings twitched against his back. It usually meant that someone needed his help.
It was moments like this one where he hated being at the center of commotion. It was going to be difficult for him to get away. He opened his mouth to say something, but he realized that his voice was not going to be loud enough to cut through the noise. He stood up and fought his way through the crowd that formed around his desk.
He finally got far enough to get some breathing room. “I’m going to…” he said, stepping away from the crowd. He was glad when no one acknowledged him. “Okay.”
He slowly made his way toward the elevator, scared that if he moved too quickly he’d be caught. As soon as he was in the safety of the elevator, he sighed with relief. Now, all he needed was to get outside without interruption and he could change and get to where he needed to be.
He ran out of the building and toward the nearest dark alley. He quickly changed out of his clothes, sending them somewhere safe. Then he closed his eyes and tried to pinpoint the location of who needed his help.
He flew to the outskirts of town. A house was on fire. But flying there, he knew that there was more to the story that he’d see when he landed.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
After saving the people who were trapped in the burning house and making sure the people who were in the meth lab that exploded next door were in custody, Cas took to the air. He flew around the city, waiting for someone or something that needed saving when he heard the voice of someone sounding distressed. He transported himself to the source of it.
He was surprised to end up at his work building. What surprised him even more was to see Dean outside on the roof, holding his camera, and looking like he wanted to tear his hair out. He went invisible so he could observe Dean for a few minutes and see why he was so miserable.
“Hey, winged-superhero-dude. You wanna fly down and help me out here?” he yelled into the sky. His voice was raw from yelling for the last twenty minutes. He had one more day to get a decent picture of the elusive superhero and he was no closer to getting the shot than he was at the beginning of the assignment. “I’m gonna get fired,” Dean groaned. He put the camera strap around his neck. “Stupid superhero assignment.”
Cas floated above Dean, watching. Dean wanted to see him, superhero him, but Cas had no idea why. He hoped Dean would give him more information about it, but he didn’t. He watched Dean throw his hands up in the air and groan. He paced back and forth, tapping a pencil in his hand along the railing.
He felt it was time to help his coworker out. He made himself visible and floated behind Dean. “Do…” Cas coughed a couple of times. He needed to change his voice or Dean would recognize him. “Do you need help?”
Dean jumped and spun around, dropping his pencil down the side of the building. His eyes were wide enough that he was afraid they’d fall out of their sockets. “It’s you.”
Immediately, Cas wondered if revealing himself to Dean was the smartest idea, but he knew that once he showed himself, he couldn’t just vanish again. “It…” He let out a deep breath and let his feet touch the roof. “It is,” he replied, deepening his voice. He hoped it was enough to conceal his identity.
He wondered what he looked like to other people. Not many saw him in his superhero outfit, and if they did, it was only for a flash. He hoped Dean wasn’t scared of a man who had just appeared out of nowhere wearing only black slacks, a cloak, and a mask that Jo had sewn for him. The outfit was minimal and made it easier for his wings to stretch out. He hoped that it wasn’t so minimal that Dean would be able to figure out who was really under the mask.
“Um…” Dean mumbled. He rubbed his hands together, not knowing what to do with them. “I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Dean Winchester.” He held out his hand, not knowing if it was an all right thing to do.
Cas reached out and shook his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dean.”
“Can you talk for a few minutes?” He knew he was still holding onto the superhero’s hand, but there was a warmth radiating from it that he could not ignore.
“I can spare a few minutes. There’s not crisis right now. I don’t know how long that will last.”
“Right. Hero. Always someone or something to save.” Dean took the chance to finally let go of the masked man’s hand.
“I… I try.”
“You’re doing more than trying.”
“You’re very kind to say that.”
Dean let out a short laugh. “Kind. That’s to be determined.”
“So, what would you…” Cas’s voice trailed off when his wings fluttered and he felt a group of people in distress. He wasn’t able to pinpoint the location. He looked at Dean. “Can… can we postpone this conversation for a later date?” He didn’t want to just leave Dean without an explanation.
“What?” Dean asked.
“Something is happening in the East. Will you be available to talk later? I’m not sure about tonight, but sometime soon?” He didn’t mean to sound rushed, but he needed to leave soon if he wanted to get to where he needed to be.
“Um, yeah. I’ll be here.”
Cas nodded once. “Until next time, Dean Winchester.”
Dean watched as wings appeared from thin air and stretched out. He gasped at how big they were and the color of them. They were dark with a bluish tint to them. And they looked soft. He wanted to reach out and touch them.
Cas flapped his wings once and lifted a few feet off the ground. He flew over the balcony and drifted down. He stayed there for a few minutes and closed his eyes. He needed to sense where the danger was coming from.
His eyes opened when he felt himself surrounded by light along with the sounds of a camera shutter. He knew that Dean was taking a picture. He realized that had to be Dean’s special assignment.
He smiled, knowing that he had been able to take a way some of Dean’s stress. He then went invisible and flew.
LRLRLRLRLRLRLR
Cas had stopped at the shop across from his work building before he went back to the pen. When he got back, he set a cheeseburger and fries on Dean’s desk, knowing that he probably hadn’t eaten the entire night.
Dean looked up, surprised to see Cas standing over him. “You’re a god amongst men, Cas.”
“You got me coffee earlier.”
“I guess that’s what we do.” He opened the cheeseburger and took a bite out of it. He groaned, not realizing how hungry he was. He had to stop himself from inhaling it. “I didn’t even realize you were gone for so long,” Dean replied, his mouth half full of food.
“It’s fine,” Cas replied. “I just had to call Jo and tell her I was going to be a little late for dinner. Did I miss anything important?” Cas walked over to his desk and saw the first pages of the two articles with corrections all over them.
“Not really,” Ash answered. He walked over to Dean’s desk and stole a fry from it. “Dean just walked back in too. He left because he was losing the argument.”
“Hey,” Dean complained. He set down his burger that was half gone and walked over to Cas. “Hey, Cas.”
“Hello, Dean,” Cas said. He was confused as to why Dean felt the need to greet him again.
“Sorry. For the fighting.”
Cas shook his head, not wanting Dean to chastise himself for it. “It’s all right.”
“No,” Dean said, quickly squashing Cas’s need to downplay the fighting. “It wasn’t. It wasn’t cool for us to ambush you when we wanted our article chosen. That isn’t fair to you, Cas. I mean, it took us twenty minutes to even realize that you weren’t even sitting at your desk to listen to us argue. Who knows how long you were gone before then.”
“I didn’t leave because of you. I had to—”
“Hey, breaking news,” Sarah said, running into the bullpen with Lisa and Victor following close behind.
“What?” Ash asked.
And just like that, the attention was off of Cas again. Just the way he wanted it.
“Apparently, Dark Wings just saved a bunch of people when their boat flipped over,” Lisa answered.
“When did that happen?” Ash asked.
“Like twenty minutes ago. And before that, he saved a family that was trapped in a house that was on fire.”
Cas sighed. He wondered if they would actually get the real story about what happened. He’d wait for the news to report it.
“I talked to him.”
“What was that, Dean?” Ash asked when he thought he heard Dean mumble something say something.
Dean shook his head, not wanting to answer any questions. “Nothing. “
“So, does this mean that this is the new article?” Victor asked.
“Probably,” Sarah answered.
Dean shook his head. “Probably not,” he countered. He stood up and walked to the middle of the bullpen. “Crowley doesn’t care about articles when it comes to Dark Wings. All he cares about are pictures.”
“So, we’re not going to report anything about Dark Wings?” Sarah asked, incredulous. She didn’t think it was a smart idea to not print anything about him saving two groups of people in one night.
“Nope. Besides, every other newspaper is going to try and report about it.”
“You sound like there’s a but at the end of that sentence,” Ash said.
“But no one is going to read it if there isn’t a picture of Dark… Angel on the front page.”
“Dark Angel?” Ash asked. He laughed. The name sounded ridiculous.
“That’s what Crowley is calling him once we get a good enough picture of him.”
“Whenever that is,” Ash replied. He didn’t think it was possible. No one ever got close enough to be able to print something worth publishing.
Dean knew better. “Okay,” he said loudly, getting everyone’s attention. “Well, finish fixing up the articles from before and we’ll give them to Cas to read over. Then, if he wants, he’ll choose.” Dean looked at Cas. “You’re okay with that, right?”
Cas’s eyes widened, surprised that Dean was actually asking him for his opinion. “We’ll see.”
Dean smirked then looked to everyone else in the pen. He saw that everyone was watching the exchange between him and his partner. “Go!” Dean said.
And just like that, everyone went to their respective corners and got back to work.
Dean waited for everyone to get back to work before he headed toward his desk. He was not surprised to see Cas standing in front of him a second later.
“You seem a lot more at ease,” Cas replied.
“How can you tell?” Dean asked.
“You just are. I know how you act when you’re stressed. You’re not acting that way right now.”
Dean found himself smiling at what Cas had said. In all honesty, he would have been surprised if Cas wasn’t able to read him as easily as he did. “Yeah. I figured it out. I got what I needed.”
“For?” Cas asked, although he knew. He had to keep up pretenses.
“Crowley’s assignment. It’s like a weight the size of Jupiter has been lifted from my shoulders.”
“That’s good,” Cas replied. He was glad to see Dean at ease.
“For now,” Dean sighed, weary, but taking the victory as it was. “Until the stress starts over next week.”
“Well, at least you get a moment of reprieve.”
“I’ll savor that moment,” Dean replied, and he meant it. This was the best he’s felt in a week. But he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to constantly have to go through the stress. This week might as well have been a fluke. The feeling of dread came over him and his moment of peace was gone. “Why did I take this assignment, Cas?”
“Because you’re you,” Cas replied quick and easily.
“What does that mean?”
“You do things for other people even if you don’t want to.”
“You’re describing yourself, Cas,” Dean laughed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cas replied.
Dean shook his head at Cas’s simplicity. “Of course not.” Cas never always understood what he was saying, but Dean would never change his partner for anything. “You don’t have to worry about the articles. Not now at least. I was just giving everyone some work to do or else they would have just stood around and talked about our masked superhero.”
“Why don’t I need to worry?”
“Because Crowley isn’t going to approve them this week. Not when he as a picture of Dark Angel to use for his front page.”
“Do you have one?” He hated lying to Dean, but he knew he had to play the part.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Does that mean we actually have to report about him?”
“No. We don’t. Not this time at least.”
“Okay.”
“But just in case…” Dean trailed off. He hated asking Cas for favors, but he was the only person he trusted with something like this.
“I’ll write a small article about what happened,” he said, finishing Dean’s request. “But I don’t have too many facts.”
“Why don’t we start with a caption?”
“Would it be all right to ask to see the picture first?”
Dean thought about it for a second before he agreed to show Cas the picture. He pulled out his camera and turned it on. He loaded it onto his computer then showed the picture to Cas. “What do you think?”
Cas knew that Dean was a great photographer. Half of his greatest shots were always passed up for the paper when Crowley deemed them too artistic. Cas was glad that he had the privilege of being able to see every single one of those pictures.
Even with the previous knowledge of Dean’s caliber of photography skills, it wasn’t enough to prepare him for what he was to see on the screen.
There was something quiet about the picture. He didn’t know if it was the way his cloak fanned out and billowed behind him. He could almost see the movement in the picture. Or it could have been how his fists were clenched as he tried to pinpoint the location of where he needed to be. Or maybe it was how he could see the tension of the situation in his wings. Or maybe it was how Dean was actually able to fit his entire wingspan in the frame.
Or maybe it was that his backdrop was the buildings and roads and lights of the city.
He looked like its guardian.
Like the world kept moving along around him, but he was frozen in time.
“Wow,” Cas whispered. He could not believe what a nice picture Dean had taken of him. He was disappointed that so much of it was going to be lost in print.
“Cas, you okay?”
The sound of Dean’s voice jolted him out of his stupor. “Fine,” he whispered.
“How does it look? Does it look okay?”
“Yes. I think I can work with this.” He tilted his head to look at the picture more. “Can you send this to me?” he asked.
“Yeah, definitely,” Dean replied.
“Thank you,” Cas said and he walked back to his seat. He wondered if it was a form of narcissism having to write about himself.
[Part 2]
“Cas? Cas Singer?”
“Oh no,” Cas whispered. He knew that voice anywhere, he just never thought he’d hear it at work. The sound of it made his cheeks begin to turn a deep red. He wanted to bury his face in the stacks of papers that covered his desk. He settled for burying his face in his hands. He hoped that the person looking for him would just go away. He knew that he wasn’t that lucky.
“Cas? Anyone know where’s Cas Singer?”
“He’s over here.”
Cas looked up and saw his coworker, Dean Winchester, standing and waving his hand at the source of his irritation and embarrassment. “Dean, please don’t,” Cas whispered.
“Cas, who’s the babe?”
“She’s my sister,” he mumbled.
“Sister?” Dean repeated. “Blonde?”
“Yeah,” Cas sighed. He waited for his sister’s steps to reach him. He was not prepared for this type of surprise. A second later, she was at his desk.
“Cas? Didn’t you hear me calling for you?”
“I heard you, Jo,” Cas replied. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m visiting you.” She sat down on his desk, shifting the neat piles that Cas had on it.
Cas swatted his sister on the leg. “Off the desk,” he said. He watched Jo jump off and stand right next to him. He grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her in the direction of the elevators. “You can’t be here, Joanna.” He emphasized his frustration with her by using her full name.
“Oh, Lucas, calm down,” she replied, easily deflecting. She pulled her hand out of her older brother’s grasp. “I just wanted to see where you work.”
“Well, you’ve see it, now you have to go.” He started to push her toward the elevator doors.
Jo stepped out of the way and Cas stumbled. She spun around fast enough to catch her brother. “When is your lunch break?”
“I already took it.”
Jo pouted, disappointed. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Cas saw Dean running toward them. He held something in his hand. “Hey, Cas, are you taking your lunch break right now?”
“Apparently,” Cas sighed, somehow feeling like Dean had done that on purpose. “Unless you need my help.” He really needed a reason to stay. He was already imagining how the conversations with his sister would go.
“Go and have lunch with your sister,” Dean insisted. He looked at Jo and held out his hand. “Dean Winchester.”
“Jo Singer, nice to meet you.”
“Same here.” He let go of her hand. “Well, you should go before Crowley starts looking for you. This has to be the first lunch break you’ve taken in like a year. At least. Huh.” He handed the thing he was holding over to Castiel. Then he shrugged and headed back toward his desk.
Castiel opened up what Dean gave him and saw that it was his tan trench coat. He felt like Dean was trying to get rid of him. He slipped the coat on.
Jo pressed the button for the elevator. She didn’t say a word to her brother. A soft ping echoed and they stepped into the open doors. They were the only ones in it. “A year?” she asked.
“I haven’t been hungry.”
“Well, you are today,” Jo said. “And you’re buying.”
Cas sighed. “I figured as much.” They got down to the lobby and he waited for Jo to step out first. He opened the front door of the lobby and waited for his sister to step out before following. Then he started down one of the sidewalks.
Jo caught up with him and walked in stride. “So…” she said. She was never really comfortable with silence especially between her and her brother.
“So what are you really doing here?” He slid his hands into his pockets.
“What?” Jo asked, offended. She wrapped her arm around one of her brother’s. “I can’t come and visit my big brother at work?”
“You can,” Cas replied. “You could have warned me.”
“You enjoyed the surprise. And I wanted to come visit. What other reason would I have?”
“So it’s a big coincidence that I’ve had about thirty missed calls from mom and dad in the past week.” He looked over to his sister and smirked.
“They’re worried, Cas,” Jo replied. She unconsciously squeezed her brother’s arm tighter. “You’re showing up on more front pages. They just want to make sure that you are safe.”
“Tell them to stop worrying.”
“I can’t do that because that would be quite hypocritical of me.”
“Jo.”
“I’m worried about you too. You’re flying all over the world fighting villains and nature and evil. Soon you’ll be popping up on the front page of the Star Gazette.”
Cas knew Jo was taking a cheap shot by naming the paper he worked for. “Crowley doesn’t care about that stuff.”
Jo rolled her eyes and continued to talk, ignoring everything her brother had said. “Mom and dad. We don’t want to see your face—”
“I’m not,” Cas replied.
“Fine. Castiel or whatever the newspapers are calling you. It doesn’t matter because you’re the same person.”
“Joanna.”
“I don’t like worrying about you.”
Cas swung his sister around and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry that I’m worrying you,” he whispered. He kissed her on the crown of her head. “But I feel better knowing that by doing all of this, I’m keeping the world safe. I’m keeping my family safe.”
Jo wrapped her arms around her brother. It was the first hug they shared in a long time. “But what happens when all of the secrets come out?”
“They won’t.”
Jo pulled away from her brother. “Right, because these glasses on your face are enough.” She reached up and pulled the glasses off of Cas’s face.
“Stop that,” Cas said, snatching the glasses back. He wiped the lenses and put the glasses back on. “People might recognize me.”
“You don’t stick around your rescues long enough for people to see you. That’s if you even make yourself visible. You need a mask or something. I’ll make you one,” Jo said with a laugh. Just as quickly as it came, the smile disappeared and Jo became serious. “But what happens if someone does. Recognize you, I mean.”
“Then I’ll still keep my family safe.”
Jo let out a loud sigh and continued to walk down the sidewalk. “Mom and dad won’t be happy.”
“I know. But I’ll do what I have to do to protect the people I care about.”
“I know,” Jo replied. She reached over and patted her brother on the stomach. “Mom said she knows you haven’t been eating enough. She said she can tell from the crappy pictures on the newspapers. Mom and dad said I have to make sure you eat something.”
“What does that mean?” Cas asked.
“It means, that in addition to taking you out to lunch, I’m living with you for a month.”
“Jo—”
“Don’t, Cas,” she said, stopping her brother from saying anything else. “I’m staying with you for the next month, maybe two, and cooking for you.”
“I don’t need to eat.”
“You want to tell mom that?” She crossed her arms over her chest, challenging her brother.
Cas knew that he couldn’t win. He sighed. “So, what’s for dinner tonight?”
Jo smiled and walked ahead of her brother. Cas shook his head following after her.
Almost an hour later, Cas made his way back to his office, after handing over his spare apartment key and giving Jo directions to the place. He sat back in his desk and took off his trench coat. He folded it up and put it into the bottom drawer of his desk.
He was at his desk for one minute when a shadow was cast over him. He looked up to see Dean leaning against the side of his desk. Somehow it didn’t bother him as much when he did it. It probably had to do with the fact that Dean didn’t mess up the organization of everything like Jo did. “Hello, Dean.”
Dean tucked the pencil that was in his hand behind his ear. “So, how was lunch with your sister?”
“Good.”
Dean crossed his arms over his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a sister, Cas?”
If Cas didn’t know any better, he would have thought that Dean was offended, or at least hurt. “I didn’t think it was important.” He didn’t think that Dean would actually care. They worked on articles together. He didn’t think that there was anything more to their relationship than that.
“It’s your family. Why wouldn’t it be important?”
“I just never had a reason to bring them up.”
“Embarrassing family members?”
“Quite the opposite, actually. Barring the little scene from earlier today, I’m the one doing most of the embarrassing.” He could feel himself blushing. He had no idea why he was suddenly divulging so much information to Dean. Sure, they had been partners for a couple of years, but this is the most personal he’d been with the other man.
“Aw, Cas,” Dean said. He clapped a hand onto Cas’s shoulder. “You aren’t that bad. Clumsy. Quiet. Too freakishly smart to be here.”
“I like writing,” Cas said, needing to defend himself.
“But not embarrassing,” Dean continued, as if Cas hadn’t said anything. He squeezed the shoulder then let go.
“Thanks.” For some reason, that was enough reassurance for Cas.
“Which begs the question,” he said, leaning over toward Cas. “What other secrets are you keeping from me?”
Cas’s eyes widened to the size of golf balls. He did not want Dean digging into his life. “I—”
“Singer! Winchester! My office. Now.”
Cas had never been happier hearing his boss’s voice. Dean usually made him uncomfortable, but this was a different kind of discomfort. “We should go,” he said.
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. “Before Crowley calls the dogs on us.”
“He has dogs?”
“Probably. He seems like the type to have a dozen Yorkies or something.”
“Yorkies?”
“They’re probably evil.”
Dean smiled and Cas found himself mirroring the action. “Guys.” The two of them looked up and saw their coworker Ash coming toward them. “Crowley’s waiting for the both of you.”
“I guess he is,” Dean replied. “We should go.” He stood up and adjusted everything on Cas’s desk that he might have moved.
Cas stood up and followed Dean as he walked toward Crowley’s office. Dean opened the door and Cas stepped in first.
“What took you so long?” Crowley asked as soon as Dean closed the door behind him.
Dean and Cas looked at each other and sighed. They took their seats in front of Crowley’s desk without another word.
After about twenty minutes, Crowley had finished giving the two of them details to their next assignment. “Well, get to it,” Crowley said. Dean and Cas stood up and headed toward the door. “Not you,” he said, stopping them from leaving.
Both of them turned around. “Who are you talking to?” Dean asked.
“You. Cas, get to proofing.”
Cas walked out of Crowley’s office leaving Dean and their boss alone.
“I should go help him,” Dean said. He felt bad that Cas was starting work on something without him. They were partners and he didn’t like when Cas pulled more weight on projects than he did.
“Have a seat, Dean.” Dean tentatively sat down that he had just vacated a few seconds ago. “I have a special assignment for you.”
“Special how?”
“Dark Angel.”
“Who?” Dean asked.
Crowley reached into his desk drawer and pulled out three newspapers. He laid them out on his desk and pushed them toward Dean. “The one that everyone is calling Dark Wings. Isn’t that the name of something already?”
“A cartoon. And he was a duck.”
“We’ll we’re changing it. Something more mysterious.”
Dean picked up one of the newspapers, looking at the picture on the front page. He couldn’t help but criticize the work of it. It was unfocused and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be looking at. “Dark Wings isn’t mysterious?” He set that down and looked at the next paper. The quality of work on it wasn’t any better. He didn’t even bother to look at the last one.
“It’s mysterious, but everyone is calling him that. I want us to be different.”
“So we’re calling him an angel,” he deadpanned. He felt like it was a bit blasphemous.
“Well, unless you want to call him Charcoal Eagle.”
“I don’t want to call him anything. Every other newspaper and their moms are writing about this guy. Why do we need to?”
“Why do you seem so uninterested about this man?”
“He’s saving the world. He’s not a celebrity.” Although, he did admire the good the man, or angel, was doing, he hated that the newspapers were exploiting him. “I think he just wants to keep his life private.”
“Dean.”
“What do you want, Crowley? Why am I here and not Cas?”
“Because I want pictures. Better than these specks that could easily be a duck.” He stacked the newspapers on top of each other then threw them off to the side. “I don’t want his life story. People don’t care. I just need pictures snapped.”
“And if I say no?”
“You won’t.”
“We’re not going to make up stories about him and all that, are we?” He didn’t want to be a part of this if they were going to villainize him.
“No. His picture sells papers. And the better the pictures, the better my sales will be.”
“You want me to take a picture of a superhero?” Saying it out loud made it real for Dean. Real, but no less ridiculous. “I mean, nobody’s ever snapped a good picture of him. I’m pretty sure that the only people that have actually seen him are the people he’s saved.” The more he kept talking, the more he didn’t want to do the assignment Crowely was bestowing upon him. But he knew that he would eventually say yes. He liked his job too much for Crowley to have to fire him because he didn’t want to take a few pictures. He would rather have been fired because he wasn’t able get something done. “So what am I supposed to do?”
“You do whatever you need to do to make me my money. But do what you do best and what I hired you for.”
“I feel like a prostitute.”
“Oh, Dean. Don’t think that. You’re much better than a prostitute,” Crowley said with an obvious smirk on his face.
“Thanks.”
“Now go get my pictures.”
“Do I have a deadline?”
“One week.” Dean stared at Crowley in disbelief. There was no way that he would be able to get as decent of a picture as his boss wanted in a week. “Go now. Time is ticking.”
Dean got up with a sigh. He left Crowley’s office without saying another word because he knew that the words that would come out of his mouth would probably get him fired.
Dean went straight to his cubical and sat down at his desk with a loud sigh. He ran his hands down his face and banged his head against the surface of his desk.
“You look unsettled.”
Dean looked up and saw Cas standing over him. “I am.” Dean waited for Cas to say something in response. The other man just stood there. “Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
“I figured it has something to do with Crowley keeping you in his office.”
“And you don’t want to know anything else?” Dean asked.
“Dean,” Cas sighed. “There was a reason why Crowley made you stay and not me. I’m guessing it has to do with your photography skills.”
“He made it seem like it was some top secret thing, but it’s ridiculous.”
“Okay.” Cas headed back toward his desk.
“If you knew, it’d be easier.”
Cas spun around. He knew that Dean wanted to talk, so he was going to be there for him. “How so?”
“You’d be able to help me.”
“Oh.”
“No,” Dean said quickly when Cas sounded so dejected. “Not that I’m taking advantage of you, Cas. It’s just that we work well together. You keep me settled. I wouldn’t be so stressed out. Can I tell you?”
“Dean,” Cas sighed. “I don’t think I’m supposed to know. “
“I guess not. And there’s no way that I can be vague about it.”
Cas hated seeing Dean unhappy. He wanted to help him if there was a way that he could. “Well, is there anyway that I could provide assistance without you giving me any details about it?”
“I’m not that covert, Cas.”
“Oh.”
“I should’ve just said no,” he said pinching the bridge of his nose. He was already imagining the stress that was going to come from what Crowley asked him to do.
“You can’t say no to Crowley.” He had worked for Crowley enough years to know that his boss was absolute.
“I should’ve made him a deal.”
“I doubt that would have gone over well. It’s like selling your soul to the devil.”
Dean smirked. “That is a very good comparison.” After a couple of seconds, he let out a short laugh. He was feeling better. “Why are you always so helpful, Cas?”
Cas shrugged. “I just like helping people. I’m not saving the world or anything. Just proofing articles and listening to coworkers’ problems.”
Dean didn’t know why, but it bothered him that Cas just called them coworkers. Of course, they hadn’t really talked outside of work, and Cas obviously had a lot about his life that Dean had no idea about, but he thought that they were friends. Anything more than just coworkers. “I’d return the favor, but you never seem to need anyone’s help.”
“Maybe one day you’ll be able to help me.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
Cas took that as the end of their conversation. He walked back to his desk and sat down. He pulled a pen out of his cup holder and returned to looking at the articles that had made their way to his desk at the start of the day.
Dean looked up and saw Cas already back to work. “Is there anything I can help you with now?” he asked.
Cas smiled. “I think that you need to worry about your own work first. Besides, I know you don’t want to be the one editing Ash’s tangents.”
“Next time,” Dean said.
“Next time,” Cas repeated.
The two of them went back to work until it was time to go home.
That night, back at his apartment, Cas found that his sister had made a meal for them like she had promised. “Did you invite someone over?” Cas said, noticing that there was way too much food for just two people.
Jo stepped out of the kitchen with two plates. She set them on the table. “No. Why?”
“Who are you planning to feed with all this food?” He set down his briefcase and took off his trench coat. He threw it over the back of his couch then walked over to the dining room table. He never knew why he had such a big one when he was the only one in the apartment most of the time.
“You.”
“How much are you expecting me to eat?”
“Most of this.”
“Joanna,” he sighed. As an angel, he didn’t need sustenance the way that humans did, which was why he rarely ate. When he did eat, it would never be enough to fill a human, but it was enough for him. For his mom and sister to be able to notice how skinny his was, he had to not been eating for weeks.
Doing the calculations in his head, it sounded about right.
“Whatever you’re trying to think of so I don’t feed you, stop. You’re eating at least half of this. If not tonight, then you’re eating leftovers for a week.”
“You’re really channeling mom right now,” Cas said.
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Now sit down and there better be a piece of food in your mouth in the next few seconds or I’m shoving something down your throat.”
“That sounds a little aggressive,” he replied. He took his seat at his normal chair.
Jo walked over to him and grabbed a piece of bread off of a plate in the middle of the table. She placed it on her brother’s plate. “Here. Eat this.”
He grabbed the bread and took a bite out of it. He swallowed it and watched his sister load up his plate with lasagna and salad. “You remember that story mom used to tell us when we were kids? The one about the kids who ate the witch’s candy house. And the witch kept feeding them to make them fat so she could steal their souls.”
“I think you’re blending stories together,” Jo said, making her plate and choosing the seat next to her brother instead of across. “Am I the witch in this story?”
“No. I’m just saying that’s how I feel right now. Like those kids being fed.”
“I’m not trying to make you explode, Cas. I’m just trying to make you healthy.”
“I am healthy.”
“We’re not going to fight about this over dinner,” Jo said, stopping the argument, if they could call it that. She took a bite out of her piece of bread. She grabbed her glass of wine to help wash it down. “So, that was Dean.”
“Yes,” Cas replied, nonchalant. He had no idea why his sister was bringing his coworker up. He took a bite of his lasagna.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was so handsome?”
Cas coughed, a piece of food deciding to get stuck in his throat at that time. He tried to convince himself that the two were not related. He grabbed his water and drank half the glass. When it was safe to talk, he took a breath. “I never took notice. And I didn’t realize you wanted to know.”
“He’s been your partner for almost three years. He seems like a nice guy.”
“He is.”
“So, does he have a girlfriend?”
“I don’t know.” He knew that Dean was always in the company of women and he was always able to get the attention of the females that worked in the same building, but he never knew if Dean actually had a relationship with them.
“How can you not know? You’ve been working with him for three years.”
“We work together, Jo. That’s it. We don’t see each other outside of work.”
“And you don’t talk?” Jo could not believe it. She did not understand how two people could be partnered up and work on basically everything together, but not know a thing about each other.
“Jo, I don’t like lying to people. And if we had conversations where he’d tell me something personal, I’d have to reciprocate. Besides, my life is boring.”
“Except you’re a superhero.”
Cas sighed and put down his fork. “Besides that. Me. Lucas. Lucas Novak. Boring as a box of nails.”
“I don’t think that’s a saying.”
“You know what I mean.”
“You aren’t boring, Cas.”
“You have to say that; you’re my sister.”
Jo wanted to reach across the table and shake her brother. She always hated when he would talk so lowly about himself. “Cas, you’re smart. You care about people. You’re an alien or at least not of this planet. And you have more adventures than anyone could ever dream of. You’re not boring.”
“There are only a handful of people who get to see me that way, Jo.”
“Well, I’m glad that I’m one of them,” she said with a smile.
“Me too.” Cas picked up his fork and finished eating the rest of the salad on his plate. He wasn’t that hungry, but he was going to at least finish what was in front of him. He knew it would make his sister happy.
“Would you mind if I asked Dean out?”
“Would it matter what I said?”
“Yeah, it would.”
“No, I don’t mind,” Cas replied.
“Thanks, Cas.” Jo was contemplating asking Dean out no matter what Cas said, but it was always nice for her to get his approval.
“For?”
“Nothing, Lucas,” she said shaking her head. She ripped off a piece of bread and tossed it into her mouth. “Just eat. Mom’s gonna call in a few hours to make sure that you were fed.”
“I could always lie.”
Jo wanted to laugh out loud at her brother’s suggestion. “You can’t.” There was no way that he’d ever lie to their mother.
“I can’t,” he said with a smile. He looked down at his plate and it took him a couple of minutes to finish everything on it. “Joanna?” he asked. He knew that calling her by her full first name would get a reaction out of her.
Jo glared at her brother. “Don’t call me that.”
He picked up his empty plate and walked over to where Jo was sitting. He leaned over and kissed the crown of her head. “Thank you for cooking dinner.”
“You’re welcome,” Jo said. “And you’re washing the dishes tonight.”
“I know,” he said as he put his plate in the sink.
The next few days, Cas tried to take most of the workload for the next article that he was working on with Dean because he saw how stressed out Dean was over his secret assignment. Cas wished he could have done more to help, but he still had no idea what Dean’s project entailed.
Five days after Dean got the assignment from Crowley, Cas, Dean, Ash, and a dozen other reporters were stuck in the pen working late for the next edition. Half the bullpen wanted to print one article, while the other half disagreed. It was split down the middle, and since they believed in a democracy in the pen, they wanted the sole person who didn’t cast a vote to make a decision.
At around nine at night, they cornered him as he got out of the bathroom and sat him on a chair in the middle of the open area of the pen. Each side gave their argument for the article to try and convince him theirs was better. Cas wondered when the bullpen had become a courtroom.
Unfortunately, Cas refused to take sides. He liked both articles and both had their share of faults. But that wasn’t the answer that anyone wanted, so they started to argue over him. He slipped out of the line of fire and made his way back to his desk. He needed to finish the article that would have his and Dean’s name on it and he also needed to proofread Victor and Ash’s articles because he said he would.
He finished reading through Victor’s and Ash’s articles when Dean appeared in front of him with a cup of coffee and a few pages of paper in his hand.
“Coffee?” Dean asked, holding out the cup.
“Thank you,” Cas replied, taking the cup from him. Coffee never did anything for him, but the gesture was nice. He reached for his wallet. “How much do—”
“You owe me nothing for a cup of coffee, Cas,” Dean replied.
“Well, thank you again,” Cas replied. He saw the papers in Dean’s hand. “Is that the article?”
“Yeah,” Dean replied and took a seat on the edge of Cas’s desk. “I was hoping you’d be able to tell me what you liked and didn’t like so that we could fix it up and get it printed.”
“Is that cheating?”
“No. It’s smart. Come on, Cas,” Dean pleaded, holding up the article he wanted chosen.
“Dean, I am not going to be the one to make a decision like this.”
“That’s not fair!” Ash yelled, running toward them. “Dean. You are not allowed to ask Cas.”
“Why not?” Dean asked. He stood up and stared down Ash.
Ash backed away, putting enough space between him and Dean that he didn’t feel threatened. “Because Cas is your partner. He’ll choose your side on that fact alone.”
“No, I won’t,” Cas said the same time Dean said, “No, he won’t.”
“Cas will choose this article because it’s better.”
“That article isn’t better,” Ash yelled, causing the arguments to start up again.
Cas wanted to say something so they’d stop fighting, or at least move the fight away from his desk, but he was a quiet person. And Dean and Ash were only getting louder. He sagged into his chair in defeat. His solution was to ignore them the best he could.
It became harder to do that when a crowd started forming around his desk. Times like these, Cas wished he could go invisible and get away. But as unnoticeable as he was, they would definitely notice him disappearing right before their eyes.
He let them argue, finding it wasn’t that difficult for him to read through all the noise. He figured that was the conditions he’d be working in tonight. He hoped that was the worst of it.
He cursed himself for thinking that because as soon as his did, his wings twitched against his back. It usually meant that someone needed his help.
It was moments like this one where he hated being at the center of commotion. It was going to be difficult for him to get away. He opened his mouth to say something, but he realized that his voice was not going to be loud enough to cut through the noise. He stood up and fought his way through the crowd that formed around his desk.
He finally got far enough to get some breathing room. “I’m going to…” he said, stepping away from the crowd. He was glad when no one acknowledged him. “Okay.”
He slowly made his way toward the elevator, scared that if he moved too quickly he’d be caught. As soon as he was in the safety of the elevator, he sighed with relief. Now, all he needed was to get outside without interruption and he could change and get to where he needed to be.
He ran out of the building and toward the nearest dark alley. He quickly changed out of his clothes, sending them somewhere safe. Then he closed his eyes and tried to pinpoint the location of who needed his help.
He flew to the outskirts of town. A house was on fire. But flying there, he knew that there was more to the story that he’d see when he landed.
After saving the people who were trapped in the burning house and making sure the people who were in the meth lab that exploded next door were in custody, Cas took to the air. He flew around the city, waiting for someone or something that needed saving when he heard the voice of someone sounding distressed. He transported himself to the source of it.
He was surprised to end up at his work building. What surprised him even more was to see Dean outside on the roof, holding his camera, and looking like he wanted to tear his hair out. He went invisible so he could observe Dean for a few minutes and see why he was so miserable.
“Hey, winged-superhero-dude. You wanna fly down and help me out here?” he yelled into the sky. His voice was raw from yelling for the last twenty minutes. He had one more day to get a decent picture of the elusive superhero and he was no closer to getting the shot than he was at the beginning of the assignment. “I’m gonna get fired,” Dean groaned. He put the camera strap around his neck. “Stupid superhero assignment.”
Cas floated above Dean, watching. Dean wanted to see him, superhero him, but Cas had no idea why. He hoped Dean would give him more information about it, but he didn’t. He watched Dean throw his hands up in the air and groan. He paced back and forth, tapping a pencil in his hand along the railing.
He felt it was time to help his coworker out. He made himself visible and floated behind Dean. “Do…” Cas coughed a couple of times. He needed to change his voice or Dean would recognize him. “Do you need help?”
Dean jumped and spun around, dropping his pencil down the side of the building. His eyes were wide enough that he was afraid they’d fall out of their sockets. “It’s you.”
Immediately, Cas wondered if revealing himself to Dean was the smartest idea, but he knew that once he showed himself, he couldn’t just vanish again. “It…” He let out a deep breath and let his feet touch the roof. “It is,” he replied, deepening his voice. He hoped it was enough to conceal his identity.
He wondered what he looked like to other people. Not many saw him in his superhero outfit, and if they did, it was only for a flash. He hoped Dean wasn’t scared of a man who had just appeared out of nowhere wearing only black slacks, a cloak, and a mask that Jo had sewn for him. The outfit was minimal and made it easier for his wings to stretch out. He hoped that it wasn’t so minimal that Dean would be able to figure out who was really under the mask.
“Um…” Dean mumbled. He rubbed his hands together, not knowing what to do with them. “I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Dean Winchester.” He held out his hand, not knowing if it was an all right thing to do.
Cas reached out and shook his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dean.”
“Can you talk for a few minutes?” He knew he was still holding onto the superhero’s hand, but there was a warmth radiating from it that he could not ignore.
“I can spare a few minutes. There’s not crisis right now. I don’t know how long that will last.”
“Right. Hero. Always someone or something to save.” Dean took the chance to finally let go of the masked man’s hand.
“I… I try.”
“You’re doing more than trying.”
“You’re very kind to say that.”
Dean let out a short laugh. “Kind. That’s to be determined.”
“So, what would you…” Cas’s voice trailed off when his wings fluttered and he felt a group of people in distress. He wasn’t able to pinpoint the location. He looked at Dean. “Can… can we postpone this conversation for a later date?” He didn’t want to just leave Dean without an explanation.
“What?” Dean asked.
“Something is happening in the East. Will you be available to talk later? I’m not sure about tonight, but sometime soon?” He didn’t mean to sound rushed, but he needed to leave soon if he wanted to get to where he needed to be.
“Um, yeah. I’ll be here.”
Cas nodded once. “Until next time, Dean Winchester.”
Dean watched as wings appeared from thin air and stretched out. He gasped at how big they were and the color of them. They were dark with a bluish tint to them. And they looked soft. He wanted to reach out and touch them.
Cas flapped his wings once and lifted a few feet off the ground. He flew over the balcony and drifted down. He stayed there for a few minutes and closed his eyes. He needed to sense where the danger was coming from.
His eyes opened when he felt himself surrounded by light along with the sounds of a camera shutter. He knew that Dean was taking a picture. He realized that had to be Dean’s special assignment.
He smiled, knowing that he had been able to take a way some of Dean’s stress. He then went invisible and flew.
Cas had stopped at the shop across from his work building before he went back to the pen. When he got back, he set a cheeseburger and fries on Dean’s desk, knowing that he probably hadn’t eaten the entire night.
Dean looked up, surprised to see Cas standing over him. “You’re a god amongst men, Cas.”
“You got me coffee earlier.”
“I guess that’s what we do.” He opened the cheeseburger and took a bite out of it. He groaned, not realizing how hungry he was. He had to stop himself from inhaling it. “I didn’t even realize you were gone for so long,” Dean replied, his mouth half full of food.
“It’s fine,” Cas replied. “I just had to call Jo and tell her I was going to be a little late for dinner. Did I miss anything important?” Cas walked over to his desk and saw the first pages of the two articles with corrections all over them.
“Not really,” Ash answered. He walked over to Dean’s desk and stole a fry from it. “Dean just walked back in too. He left because he was losing the argument.”
“Hey,” Dean complained. He set down his burger that was half gone and walked over to Cas. “Hey, Cas.”
“Hello, Dean,” Cas said. He was confused as to why Dean felt the need to greet him again.
“Sorry. For the fighting.”
Cas shook his head, not wanting Dean to chastise himself for it. “It’s all right.”
“No,” Dean said, quickly squashing Cas’s need to downplay the fighting. “It wasn’t. It wasn’t cool for us to ambush you when we wanted our article chosen. That isn’t fair to you, Cas. I mean, it took us twenty minutes to even realize that you weren’t even sitting at your desk to listen to us argue. Who knows how long you were gone before then.”
“I didn’t leave because of you. I had to—”
“Hey, breaking news,” Sarah said, running into the bullpen with Lisa and Victor following close behind.
“What?” Ash asked.
And just like that, the attention was off of Cas again. Just the way he wanted it.
“Apparently, Dark Wings just saved a bunch of people when their boat flipped over,” Lisa answered.
“When did that happen?” Ash asked.
“Like twenty minutes ago. And before that, he saved a family that was trapped in a house that was on fire.”
Cas sighed. He wondered if they would actually get the real story about what happened. He’d wait for the news to report it.
“I talked to him.”
“What was that, Dean?” Ash asked when he thought he heard Dean mumble something say something.
Dean shook his head, not wanting to answer any questions. “Nothing. “
“So, does this mean that this is the new article?” Victor asked.
“Probably,” Sarah answered.
Dean shook his head. “Probably not,” he countered. He stood up and walked to the middle of the bullpen. “Crowley doesn’t care about articles when it comes to Dark Wings. All he cares about are pictures.”
“So, we’re not going to report anything about Dark Wings?” Sarah asked, incredulous. She didn’t think it was a smart idea to not print anything about him saving two groups of people in one night.
“Nope. Besides, every other newspaper is going to try and report about it.”
“You sound like there’s a but at the end of that sentence,” Ash said.
“But no one is going to read it if there isn’t a picture of Dark… Angel on the front page.”
“Dark Angel?” Ash asked. He laughed. The name sounded ridiculous.
“That’s what Crowley is calling him once we get a good enough picture of him.”
“Whenever that is,” Ash replied. He didn’t think it was possible. No one ever got close enough to be able to print something worth publishing.
Dean knew better. “Okay,” he said loudly, getting everyone’s attention. “Well, finish fixing up the articles from before and we’ll give them to Cas to read over. Then, if he wants, he’ll choose.” Dean looked at Cas. “You’re okay with that, right?”
Cas’s eyes widened, surprised that Dean was actually asking him for his opinion. “We’ll see.”
Dean smirked then looked to everyone else in the pen. He saw that everyone was watching the exchange between him and his partner. “Go!” Dean said.
And just like that, everyone went to their respective corners and got back to work.
Dean waited for everyone to get back to work before he headed toward his desk. He was not surprised to see Cas standing in front of him a second later.
“You seem a lot more at ease,” Cas replied.
“How can you tell?” Dean asked.
“You just are. I know how you act when you’re stressed. You’re not acting that way right now.”
Dean found himself smiling at what Cas had said. In all honesty, he would have been surprised if Cas wasn’t able to read him as easily as he did. “Yeah. I figured it out. I got what I needed.”
“For?” Cas asked, although he knew. He had to keep up pretenses.
“Crowley’s assignment. It’s like a weight the size of Jupiter has been lifted from my shoulders.”
“That’s good,” Cas replied. He was glad to see Dean at ease.
“For now,” Dean sighed, weary, but taking the victory as it was. “Until the stress starts over next week.”
“Well, at least you get a moment of reprieve.”
“I’ll savor that moment,” Dean replied, and he meant it. This was the best he’s felt in a week. But he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to constantly have to go through the stress. This week might as well have been a fluke. The feeling of dread came over him and his moment of peace was gone. “Why did I take this assignment, Cas?”
“Because you’re you,” Cas replied quick and easily.
“What does that mean?”
“You do things for other people even if you don’t want to.”
“You’re describing yourself, Cas,” Dean laughed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cas replied.
Dean shook his head at Cas’s simplicity. “Of course not.” Cas never always understood what he was saying, but Dean would never change his partner for anything. “You don’t have to worry about the articles. Not now at least. I was just giving everyone some work to do or else they would have just stood around and talked about our masked superhero.”
“Why don’t I need to worry?”
“Because Crowley isn’t going to approve them this week. Not when he as a picture of Dark Angel to use for his front page.”
“Do you have one?” He hated lying to Dean, but he knew he had to play the part.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Does that mean we actually have to report about him?”
“No. We don’t. Not this time at least.”
“Okay.”
“But just in case…” Dean trailed off. He hated asking Cas for favors, but he was the only person he trusted with something like this.
“I’ll write a small article about what happened,” he said, finishing Dean’s request. “But I don’t have too many facts.”
“Why don’t we start with a caption?”
“Would it be all right to ask to see the picture first?”
Dean thought about it for a second before he agreed to show Cas the picture. He pulled out his camera and turned it on. He loaded it onto his computer then showed the picture to Cas. “What do you think?”
Cas knew that Dean was a great photographer. Half of his greatest shots were always passed up for the paper when Crowley deemed them too artistic. Cas was glad that he had the privilege of being able to see every single one of those pictures.
Even with the previous knowledge of Dean’s caliber of photography skills, it wasn’t enough to prepare him for what he was to see on the screen.
There was something quiet about the picture. He didn’t know if it was the way his cloak fanned out and billowed behind him. He could almost see the movement in the picture. Or it could have been how his fists were clenched as he tried to pinpoint the location of where he needed to be. Or maybe it was how he could see the tension of the situation in his wings. Or maybe it was how Dean was actually able to fit his entire wingspan in the frame.
Or maybe it was that his backdrop was the buildings and roads and lights of the city.
He looked like its guardian.
Like the world kept moving along around him, but he was frozen in time.
“Wow,” Cas whispered. He could not believe what a nice picture Dean had taken of him. He was disappointed that so much of it was going to be lost in print.
“Cas, you okay?”
The sound of Dean’s voice jolted him out of his stupor. “Fine,” he whispered.
“How does it look? Does it look okay?”
“Yes. I think I can work with this.” He tilted his head to look at the picture more. “Can you send this to me?” he asked.
“Yeah, definitely,” Dean replied.
“Thank you,” Cas said and he walked back to his seat. He wondered if it was a form of narcissism having to write about himself.
[Part 2]
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Date: 2011-12-13 09:36 am (UTC)I'm really enjoying the story so far :)
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Date: 2011-12-13 06:12 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of this story!