《Castiel 》
I had never been so disappointed in myself in all my long life, than the moment Hazel disappeared from view as my brother took her away to Father knows where.
The first human I had made a private oath to myself to protect, slipped through my fingers into those of the devil. I should have wiped her memories, I should have turned her away the moment she arrived.
Sam and Dean surely would have agreed with the decision.
And yet I wanted her to stay, to be near her, so I could keep her safe in person. Keep safe the little girl I'd watched grow up and struggle with life. Let die at the hands of my brethren.
After I'd taken the Winchesters back to Bobby's, they questioned me, and I had no easy answer. Only that their sister was gone, after failing to kill Lucifer and losing their friends, they now had to figure out a way to find her.
Dean, who was probably the most family oriented one of all, was particularly upset, though he didn't say much.
I stood in admittedly self pity in the corner, as the four of us tried to come up with a solution.
"Ok, let's think about what we know," Sam said, his voice cracking, "we know Lucifer isn't going to kill her. So she's going to be held up somewhere, probably guarded by demons."
"Yeah, and tortured by them, Sam." Dean snapped, "tell us something we don't know. "
Sam ignored his brothers pain driven ire, and pondered silently.
"We know that Lucifer likely isn't going to be there personally," I informed them.
"What do you mean, how do we know that?" Bobby asked.
"Because the angels know about her by now, meaning she'll need to be warded from them too," I replied, "or at the very least, he'll think he can't be bothered with it. Let demons interrogate her for him."
"Ok," Sam said lightly, "so all we have to do, is get a demon to talk."
"What about Crowley? He's gotta have spies," Dean suggested, "hate to say it but for the time being he's on our side."
"Dean, he nearly got us killed telling us to use the Colt on Lucifer," Sam protested.
"I agree with Sam," I said, "Crowley doesn't need to know about any of this."
"Cas, by now he probably knows about Hazel already. Cat's outta the bag!" Dean snapped at me.
I tensed inside my vessel. He had a point. It was unlikely that there was a single demon working for Lucifer OR Crowley that wasn't aware of a living Seer walking the earth.
"Wait, " Sam said suddenly in eureka, "what about Chuck?"
"Man, screw that douchebag," Dean growled, "we don't need him."
"No...Sam's right," I interjected with hope, "the prophet might know where she is."
"Alright, fine," Dean caved, digging his car keys out of his pants, "let's go."
I stopped him, "Wait. We don't have time for a drive, Dean. She's already been gone nearly a week. Either you come with me now, or you don't come at all."
☆☆☆☆☆
I took the Winchesters as my passengers to front porch of the prophet, Chuck. I didn't care if Dean wouldn't be able to defecate for a week, we needed answers fast.
Sam violently knocked on the door. "Chuck! " he hollered, "Chuck we need to talk!"
There was no answer, but I could sense the prophet inside.
"Move," I ordered Sam.
I ripped the door off its hinges, sending it flying across the lawn.
"Take it easy, Cas," Dean said as I stormed over the threshold. But I would not not take it easy. I had a failure to correct.
I found the prophet cowering in his kitchen, pressed into a corner counter. "H-hey guys, you shoulda called first...I would've-"
"Save it, Chuck. We're here about Hazel, " Dean spat.
"What? Oh...that happened already? I got my time line all screwed up..."
"Focus!" Dean shouted, "Did you see Lucifer take her?"
Chuck pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah...I saw. I'm sorry."
Growing impatient I grabbed Chuck's collar in both hands and held him in the air, feet dangling. "Where!?"
"Ok ok easy! Geez and you guys are supposed to be the good guys...put me down...please?"
With a reluctant growl I lowered him back to his feet.
"Where did they take her?"
"She's not in America anymore, they took her to France," he answered.
Dean scoffed and raised a questioning brow. "France? Why France?"
"There's a maze of catacombs under Paris, only a fraction of it charted. That's where they're keeping her," Chuck explained. "But I couldn't say where, the catacombs are...endless. You'll have to figure that out yourself."
"Thank you," I said gratefully, then turned to Sam and Dean. "Are you staying or going? "
Dean smirked. "She's our sister, Cas. And hey, who hasn't always wanted to see Paris?"
☆☆☆☆☆
"Put this on, " Sam said, handing his brother a gas mask from inside his bag.
"For what?"
"The Catacombs are known for producing toxic vapors, its part of the reason it hasn't been fully explored. "
"Well what about Hazel?"
I practically rolled my eyes. "The demons will have been instructed to keep Hazel alive, surely they've scrubbed the oxygen wherever she's being held."
Dean nodded with satisfaction. "Ok...so how do we find her?"
We stood together several feet inside an authorized entrance to the underground labyrinth, pitch black to the human eye.
I squinted into the darkness that I could easily see through. "I sense a presence in the distance. I can't tell what it is, but I say we follow it."
"Lead the way Cas," Sam said, flicking on a flashlight.
We trekked for hours through endless tunnels before we came upon warding on the walls. Enochian.
It weakened me but it didnt keep me out. I readied my blade, as did the Winchesters behind me. We'd be in a fight soon enough, I was sure of it.
As I distractedly followed my senses, I couldn't help but worry about the woman we searched for. Wonder how she was being treated. If she was being tortured, and how severely. My jaw tightened involuntarily. I'd never get used to the physical reactions of a vessel to emotions.
In my mind it was difficult to see anything other than a child, when I thought of her. Making this worse.
"So...Cas," Dean broke the silence, "what's your deal?"
His question caught me off guard, temporarily shaking my concentration. "What do you mean?"
"Well, we appreciate the help," he began hesitantly, "but you seem extra pissed off about this. "
I slowed my steps and closed my eyes with a sigh. "Yes..."
"Why?" Sam asked.
I had nothing to hide, but I hesitated, for even I did not fully understand my attachment to the Seer. I took one look at her years ago and it shook me. Shook my obedience. I couldn't explain it, all I knew was that I was meant to protect her.
"I have watched over your sister all her life. She didn't know me, but I knew her...if you were thinking you were the first human I'd grown attached to, Dean, you were wrong. "
"I get it, " he said, "I looked out for Sam. I failed. I got angry..."
"Exactly. "
Suddenly a sound echoed from far ahead in the maze of tunnels. An exhausted scream of agony. My heart wretched.
"Hazel!" Sam whispered loudly.
"We gotta move, fast," Dean said, though I needed no encouragement. I quickened my pace, rounding a corner were a slough of demons were waiting, at least a dozen. They stiffened in fear at the sight of me, but foolishly attacked all the same. Dean fired rounds to keep them at bay while Sam and I engaged in bladed combat.
One I ran through right in the throat. Next I kicked its legs out from under it and thrust down into its chest.
Another came at me but stopped dead in its tracks as I stood up, ready to flee. I snatched him by the neck and slammed him into tunnel wall, driving my blade into its skull.
The tunnel sparked and flashed with dying demons until just one remained, prepared to turn and run. I caught him by the shoulders and held his arms behind his back.
"Heheh , where'd you think you're going?" Dean said, getting in the demons face while I held him.
"Where is she?"
"Piss off, American," came the french accented response, and the demon spit in his face.
Dean wiped his cheek and smirked cruelly.
"Cas?"
I couldn't kill them with merely a thought anymore, but I could cause them pain. I grinned too, and seared the demon from the inside out with agony. It shrieked and struggled.
"Where... Is she?" I repeated Dean.
The demon reluctantly agreed to show us the way, never leaving my grasp. The wards grew stronger, I felt myself weakening by the minute but I was still more than human, and the demon wasn't going anywhere.
Finally after nearly an hour we came upon a heavy wooden door, crudely fashioned into the stone wall.
"Thank you," I murmured and slid my blade deep into the abomination's ribs. He dropped to my feet and stepped over the empty vessel to kick open the door.
Behind it was something like an underground warehouse, recently erected, industrial lights flickering in a concrete hallway.
Hazel screamed again, sounding much closer now. Each scream pained me, imagining what horrors she might be enduring. I could pin point the location through the series of walls and corridors but I couldn't fly under the warding.
"We're coming, Haze!" Dean hollered, just as several demons poured out of the end of the hall. He began firing and reloading like a mad man.
Sam started slashing his way through, while I merely knocked them over like bowling pins in my path, determined to get to Hazel with haste.
I went around the corner to the right, trusting my senses, taking out demons every few minutes I moved, the Winchesters far behind me but keeping me in sight.
☆☆☆☆☆
《Hazel》
"Try again..." the demon hissed at me.
My bloody lips quivered at the double edged blade pressed to my cheek.
"Please..." I choked on my cracking, dry voice, "...I cant do it anymore..."
The dagger sunk into the thin flesh over my rib cage and dragged a deep cut across. I wailed pitifully, my eyes blurry and tired. I did everything they asked, but I just didnt have the strength to use my powers anymore. Five days I'd been beaten and gouged like an animal, naked and bound to a slab by seven straps. Given water twice, but no food.
I knew I'd lost a considerable amount of blood, because I would have fainting spells, to which the demons responded by electrocuting me awake.
The hellhound had broken my ankle, which throbbed and swelled. I was burned with a hot metal rod across my collar. My face was repeatedly beaten senseless. A few of my fingers were broken, and nails removed. Many cuts and shallow stabs littered me everywhere else. I was truly defeated. It felt like I lost a fight with a wood chipper.
"You can and you will!" the demon hissed, stabbing the dagger through my broken hand, right between bones and jabbing the slab beneath. I gasped weakly, the wave of discomfort joining the rest of my wounds in a symphony of misery.
My hearing was muffled and dull, but there was commotion outside the room, distracting my torturer. Shouting. Gunfire.
I was too weak minded to make sense of it, or I might have realized what was going on.
A loud bang sounded from the entrance to the torture chamber behind me, deafening my defeated ear drums after listening to my own screams for a week. Something heavy thudded on the floor, my guess it was the door.
Dust and voices filled the chamber in slow motion.
I heard the faded shouting of my name, though I couldn't make out the owner of the voice. It was as if none of this was happening. And I was slipping away.
I then watched the most welcome yet surreal sight of my brother Sam sticking the demon knife through my torturer's neck from behind.
I uttered a feeble sigh of relief, the rising of my chest burning the various wounds.
I struggled to turn my head to see Dean beside me, fumbling with the straps holding my arm.
"Its alright, Hazey, we gotcha.."
He was appalled, distraught even. They all were. Shaking frantically to release me. Their words sounded like muffled echoes.
A familiar blurred color of the trenchcoated angel came into view on the other side.
Cas started to release the straps opposite of Dean, while Sam handled my legs. But it didn't look like Cas.
For a long moment, my dry eyes burned at the sight of his true form. Seeing his beautiful light relaxed me, entranced me, and I felt safe. His usual complacent demeanor was diminished. He looked angry and panicky.
"Cas, your coat," Dean said hastily once every one of the restraints were off.
The angel yanked off his trenchcoat and laid it over my bare, bloody body. He tucked it in underneath me, earning a few quiet groans of pain and it disturbed my stiff injuries.
"Sorry..." he whispered near my ear as he leaned over to slide his hands under me and pick me up.
He held me closely to him, my mangled arms folded into his chest and desperately clutching the coat around me.
My face found it's way to the crook of his neck, searching for more comfort.
Everything ached and burned but I blocked it out and tried to focus on the familiar scent of my rescuer. I'd never felt so vulnerable in all my life. I was shaking violently, feeling his arms tighten to calm the tremors.
He carried me effortlessly through the tunnels, stepping over corpses carefully. I was in and out of consciousness, but I knew it took a long time to reach the exit, so I tried to watch for familiar markers on the walls.
"I wish I could heal you," Cas mumbled sullenly, more to himself than me.
"Its my fault. I should have stayed out of the fight, like you told me," I whispered back hoarsely.
He made a noise almost like a soothing hush, and squeezed me gently a little tighter to him. It hurt but soothed all the same.
"This isn't your fault, Hazel. Its mine. And it will never happen again. "
"I told them everything they wanted to know..." I admitted shamefully, stinging tears leaving my eyes.
"But I was so tired...I couldnt do it anymore. So they..."
"Its alright," he breathed softly.
"Its ok Haze," Sam said from nearby, "we don't think you're traitor."
"What did they want to know?" Cas asked me carefully.
I coughed dryly. "Random stuff mostly. Where to find angels, where Crowley's been hiding. But recently they wanted to know where Lucifer could find Famine. "
"Famine? The Horseman?" Sam asked.
I nodded. "I couldn't find him, hence the torutre."
I didn't know how he did it, but somehow Castiel zapped all three of us with him back to the Impala in America. I was fast asleep, but was awakened slightly by Cas shuffling me into the backseat with him. He looked almost as tired as me, I could see his wings tremble briefly. My powers were definitely getting stronger, but in this state I couldn't hold onto anything longer than a few seconds.
Cas never let me off his lap, and I was beginning to fully understand what Lucifer meant by sentimental attachment.
Castiel cared about me, that much was clear now.
"Can we go home...?" I whispered, barely awake.
I felt a hand touch my hair.
"You're going to a hospital. " Dean said, starting the engine.
I winced. "No...the needles."
"Its going to be alright, Haze. We'll be right there with you," Sam said.
"As will I, " Castiel's voice rumbled in the chest beneath my cheek.
☆☆☆☆☆
I didn't remember the ride, or the doctors, or anything. All I knew was I awoke in a hospital bed, with all manner of stitches and bandages on my body, and an IV in each hand. One for blood, and one for something clear.
I silently thanked that it wasn't in my arm. The boys must have told the nurses not to hook me up in the arm.
I was stiff and immediately in quite alot of pain, apparently not allowed strong medication to due to previous addiction.
Castiel was standing in front of the window with his back to me, his coat still spattered with my blood.
"Cas?"
He turned around slowly, and smiled slightly. Actually smiled. I couldn't believe it. I even saw teeth. But it was sad and shaky.
"The physicians say you're going to be fine. Just need to heal."
"I never thanked you, for coming for me," I said sleepily.
"You'll never have to thank me for saving you, Hazel." he replied, a little sadly.
My chest and stomach abruptly shivered with emotional butterflies. I never imagined he'd be like this. There was very kind and compassionate layer to Cas beneath the solider of God. I was seeing him differently now. Not just this, machine of power and battle that I thought I knew. He was actually very human, when it came down to it.
"Are you ok?" I asked him. With my strength returning I could still he was weakened by the warding and the flight.
"Yes, I'm...I'm well. Nothing I can't handle."
Dean came through the door with drive thru bags, followed by Sam with the drinks.
"Hey look who's awake! Just in time!"
"Thank God, I'm starving." I said, accepting a kiss on the forehead from Dean who handed me a big fat cheeseburger.
"Finish that up and we'll get the doc to check you out, but they're saying you can leave as soon as the blood bag is done." Sam said.
"We driving?" I asked with a mouthful of food. My jaw cramped but I didn't care. It was the most amazing tasting thing I'd ever had.
"Yeah, " Dean replied, "the ride ought to help you get some rest and Cas thinks flying might mess you up."
Thankfully, Sam had bought me a cheap change of clothes to go home in, the nurses helping me into a pair of loose gym shorts and a t shirt that my breasts poked through a bit. I shrugged it of because I hated bras anyway and I didn't expect my brothers to buy me one. Not to mention how much it would probably hurt to wear one.
I spent nearly the whole ride back to South Dakota either eating, or sleeping. It was like I couldn't get enough of either. Each time I passed out, I woke up leaned against Castiel's shoulder, or laying my head on his leg. Each time I opened my eyes I was greeted by a warm, blue gaze.
Something was bubbling inside me about this angel. I was no longer afraid of him. In fact, all I wanted was to he near him. I couldn't put my finger on it but I didn't feel safe without him around anymore. I nearly had anxiety attack at a rest stop when I went in by myself, so I made him go in with me and guard the door.
He must have picked up on this, because he followed my every step wherever we stopped, even when we finally got to Bobby's house.
I hugged the old man, pretending not to notice the wetness of his eyes and the catch in his voice. Then Cas led me upstairs to my room, supporting my still stiff and weak arm up the steps.
I sat at the head of my bed, piling up all the pillows so I could lean back on them.
He seemed satisfied and turned to leave.
"Wait..." I called out to him, unthinking.
He stopped obediently and pierced me with those eyes.
"Yes?"
"Can um...can you stay? With me, I mean...for a little awhile. "
I couldn't believe the words coming out of my own mouth. But I was terrified of him walking out the door, even if Bobby and my brothers were downstairs. I wanted Cas. Right where I could see him.
"Why?" he asked curiously.
I felt stupid asking, but I felt too shitty to really care. "Its just...being alone is the worst thing I could think of right now."
He took my request a little too literally and placed himself next to me on the bed, folding up his legs just like I did.
"I'm sorry its stupid...I don't know what's wrong with me."
A small, dry, chuckle left his throat. "Its not stupid, Hazel" he said kindly, "its called trauma."
I nodded. Right. I'm traumatized. Cool...
I scratched inside the brace over my broken ankle anxiously.
"I suppose no one's ever letting me hunt again," I sighed.
"Not the devil, no. Or demons..." he replied gravely. He was serious about that. I knew I would have to fight and likely lose to get back into the apocalypse.
We sat in silence for a few moments, afraid to say anything else to each other. But a thought crossed my mind that I couldn't ignore. I was going to live a very long time, given I survived. Cas would be the only person in my life that would still be around, given he survived too.
"Cas?"
"Hm?"
"Will you always stay with me?"
"What do you mean?"
I frowned sadly. "I mean I'm going to live for centuries...will you stay my friend, so I wont be alone?"
He looked amused by that. "You dont have to ask, Hazel. I've always been there, even if you didn't know."
"I thought you said you weren't allowed to interfere," I scolded playfully.
He smiled for real this time, and my heart melted at the sight of its brilliance. How have I never notice how beautiful he was before?
"Remember when you were eight years old, and those older girls chased you into the woods after school?"
I racked my brain for a moment, but then memory was very clear.
"Yeah, they beat me with rocks and sticks."
"And what happened to them?"
"Hm..oh, that huge tree branch broke off and pinned them all down...Kim had a broken-....that was you? "
We shared a smile between us.
"That was me."
I grew brave and hooked my arm around his, leaning on his shoulder sleepily. "You really care about me, dont you?" I asked shyly into a yawn.
"More than I should," he admitted. He began guiding my weight backwards.
"You should sleep. "
"You'll stay here?" I asked, submitting to the comfort of the bed and the angel leaning back beside me, our arms still linked.
"Always."