Standing Together

Chapter 44

Castiel walks into the room to find Jack sitting on the floor, eating some type of candy. He looks up when the door opens, a friendly smile on his face.

"I was gonna apologize for taking so long, but you look like you're enjoying yourself," Castiel says teasingly. "Good candy?"

"I like it," Jack says. "I like nougat."

Castiel chuckles. "I can see."

Jack holds some out to him. "Want some?"

Castiel shakes his head. "I'm good, but thanks."

"'Kay." Jack puts his nougat away and gives Castiel a smile. "Ready to start?"

"Yep."

Jack sits down in front of his keyboard and gestures for Castiel to join him. Castiel pulls a folding chair over to see that Jack's all prepared. He wrote out the lyrics and chords in a notebook, just above the keyboard.

"So, I know the recording you sent was kinda slow," Jack says, "and that sounds great with guitar, but I was kinda thinking, maybe it could be more upbeat? If that's okay with you. I know it's your song —"

"I think that could be really cool," Castiel interrupts. "But it's not my song anymore. It's yours. You can do whatever you want with it."

Jack beams. "Thanks, Castiel!" Turning his attention back to the keyboard and says, "I've been playing around with it a little bit these last couple weeks, and this is just kinda a rough idea, but I was thinking it could start with a kinda boppy intro for, like, eight counts?"

Jack starts playing around with the keyboard, and it's already starting to sound like a real pop song instead of a bored teenager's rambles in their bedroom like it was when Castiel wrote it. If this is any indication of how this is going to go, Castiel might not do very much at all. Jack may actually be a better melodist than Castiel.

~~

It's around five o'clock that Jack gets a phone call. He glances at his phone, checking the caller ID before picking it up.

"It's my mom," Jack says, seeming apologetic for having to interrupt their work.

Castiel waves him on, and as much as he hates disrespecting people's privacy, he doesn't have anything else to do, so he eavesdrops on Jack's side of the phone call.

"Hi, Mom! Yeah, we're still working. It's actually sounding really good. I think it's almost done. I think you're gonna love it. I don't know. Want me to ask? I'll ask." Jack lowers his phone and says, "My mom wants to know when we'll be done."

Castiel hesitates. He knows Jack would agree with anything he said, even if he didn't want to, but he doesn't want to keep the kid here too late.

Finally, he says, "I don't know. I'd like to finish the song before we leave, just so I can spend as little time with the paparazzi as possible, but I'm totally fine leaving whenever you want to and finishing it tomorrow, too."

"Well, legally I can't drive after 11 for another few months," Jack tells him, "so do you think we could finish it by, like, 10:30, so we can both get home before then? Because otherwise, I'm kinda stuck here until five tomorrow morning unless my mom picks me up."

Castiel chuckles. "Oh, the joys of being a teenager. Do you wanna shoot for that? Leave by 10:30 no matter what, but earlier if we finish in time?" They should be done before then, but with pop music becoming more and more electronic, putting together a song takes longer and longer.

Jack nods. "Sounds good!" He puts the phone against his ear again. "Castiel says we'll leave by 10:30, so I'll be home by 11:00, maybe sooner. A little bit. Oh, that would be awesome! Hang on, I'll ask." He lowers the phone again. "My mom said she'll bring us pizza for dinner if we want."

Castiel shrugs. "I wouldn't object to it."

"Awesome." He puts the phone against his ear again. "He said yes, too. Oh, hang on, I'll ask." He lowers the phone again. "Is cheese pizza okay?"

Castiel bites back a laugh. So many questions. "Cheese pizza's great."

"Coolio." Jack puts the phone against his ear again. "Cheese works. Okay, thank you. You're the best. I love you! Bye!" Jack puts his phone back in his pocket. "She said she'll be here in, like, half an hour. Do you think that's enough time to finish the chorus?"

Castiel shrugs. "I guess we'll see, won't we?"

~~

They're just finishing up the chorus when none other than Kelly Kline shows up, a large pizza in her hand. She puts it down on a table, leaving a few napkins on top of it.

"Hi, Mom!" Jack says with a grin, standing up to give his mom a hug.

"Hey, Jack." She presses a kiss to his cheek. They're such a cute family. As she and Jack pull away, she says, "And hi, Castiel. Thank you so much for do this for Jack. He was so excited when he got that email."

Castiel chuckles. "I should be thanking him, really. I'm glad I finally got the chance to send this song out — and it's sounding way better now than it did when I wrote it." Jack's really doing great things with it. It's a lot more upbeat than Castiel had planned, but it really fits with the song.

"Do you two really think you're gonna be here until 10:30?" Kelly asks. "That sounds like a long time to work on one song."

"I don't think we'll be here that late," Jack says. "But that's the limit we set. I'm sure we'll be out before then."

"Oh, that's good," Kelly says. "You don't want to spend all your energy now. You've still got a music video to film in a few days."

Jack laughs. "I'm sure we'll manage." He opens the pizza box and takes a slice, holding a napkin under it as a lame attempt at a plate.

"Thanks for bringing us pizza," Castiel says to Kelly before taking his own slice.

"No problem," she says. "I can't have you two starving to death just to make a great song." She glances at the clock, then says, "I should probably get home now." For Castiel's sake, she adds, "The dog's sick, so I don't want to leave him alone too long." She flashes them a friendly smile. "You two have fun. I'll see your both later."

Castiel waits until she's gone to ask, "Is your dog okay?" He's a little hesitant, because he knows how painful it is to lose a pet, but he's curious.

"Oh, yeah, he's fine," Jack assures him. "He just has a cold. I'm sure it'll go away in a few days, but he's not a happy camper right now." He says it with a fond smile, which means it must not be very bad.

"What type of dog is he?" Castiel asks.

"He's a pug," Jack says. "I don't know why people don't think they're cute, because he's adorable." He pauses to take a bite of pizza, then adds, "Well, he's a pug mix. He's a rescue, so we don't really know, but he still looks like a pug. He's cute and chubby and I love him."

"He sounds adorable," Castiel says.

"He is," Jack replies. "You should come to my house tomorrow! You can see my dog and my cat. They're both really cute. I think you'd like them."

Castiel chuckles. "Maybe I will." He definitely can't complain about meeting pets.