So Fell the Angels - Supernatural Fanfic/Fanfiction (Castiel Fan Fiction)

Chapter 18: Let the Sky Fall (Censored)

Chapter 18: Let the Sky Fall (Censored)

"Strange place to meet, Cort," Tabitha greets as she looks curiously around the bustling hallways, sidestepping to avoid a harried looking nurse as she bolts past her for another room.

Cort shrugs in return, his expression more closed off than she's ever seen him be with her.

She takes the time to skim over his appearance, plain blue suit, rumpled from wear or stress, and loosened gray tie. The suit gives the impression of a man with stress radiating from him, but it's the wrinkles at his eyes, the dark glint in them that suddenly give her the sensation of a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Despite the sudden awkward air filling the space between them, Tabitha forges on to ask him, "Okay, so why'd you want to meet at the West Jefferson Medical Center, then? You told me to get down to New Orleans immediately, and when I get to town, you call me to tell me to come to the hospital and won't say why. What's up?"

For just a moment, a flash of unfettered fury flits through his eyes, but then, it's gone so quickly that Tabitha almost swears she imagined it.

Not quite meeting her eyes again, but crossing his arms over his chest and feigning nonchalance, Cort blandly tells her, "It's where Momma Cecile sent me. Told me there's something real important here. Something you needed if'n your brothers was to succeed in their cockamamie schemes." He sighs and shakes his head almost in a self-deprecating manner, still not quite looking at her. "Fool man that I am, I rushed down here. Kept things under wraps. Kept doctors from poking their noses too close or officially submitting any paperwork. Trying to be your white knight, I s'pose."

Finally meeting her eyes fully, he tells her, "Well, I found what you was looking for, I guess. An’ I kept him hidden till you got here."

When he jerks his head over his shoulder to indicate to the hospital room he stands outside of, her gaze follows. When she can't quite see into the room, she cautiously steps around Cort, finding her breath has stopped and her heart is nearly in her throat with the wild hope suddenly surging in her chest.

As she draws even with Cort, her hands fly to her mouth, holding back the choked sob lodged in her throat.

"Guess he is what you was looking for," Cort darkly comments, drawing her eyes away from the sleeping figure of Castiel in the hospital bed as she looks back up at the man next to her.

Before her eyes, he seems to crumple backwards against the wall to the outside of Castiel's room, closing his eyes as if to shut out the world. The wrinkles she'd noted around his eyes seem to etch even deeper into his skin.

Wiping away the happy tears she can feel racing down her cheeks, she sadly bemoans, "Cort…" But trails off when she doesn't know what to say to ease the pain radiating from him.

Not knowing what to say, she begins again, "I'm—"

He quickly cuts her off with a low, harsh, "Don't."

Shaking his head, causing it to roll back and forth across the white sterile walls, he tells her, "I knew. I knew when I come down here I was in for a world of hurt. An' I knew as soon as I saw him what I was gonna find. Knew as soon as he started comin' to a bit o'er an hour ago and he started whispering your name. I knew.

"But I stubbornly held out that I was wrong. Held out 'till just now when I saw your face. Ain't no disguising that look. Ain't no explaining it away. An' I can't ignore it no longer." He finally opens his eyes to look down at her, tears shinning in his gaze. "You never looked that way at me. No matter what I told myself. No matter the lies I believed. The look you used to give me…well…it wasn't that look."