Fic: A Night Like This

Dec 08, 2011 08:21

Title: A Night Like This
Characters: Dean, Sam, Castiel, James (OC)
Summary: Dean, Sam and Castiel end up with a new arrival.
Rating: PG13
A/N: Sequel to 'Do You Wanna Touch Me'. AU from the end of season five.

Inside the Impala, as Dean drove them down a dark empty road in Kansas during a heavy rainstorm, Dean and Sam Winchester were chatting to their friend, and Angel, Castiel, about nothing in particular. "I'm telling you, Cas," Dean stated, "you haven't lived until you've tried their southern fried chicken..."

"Dean," Castiel said in a gruff voice, "I fail to understand your obsession with eating..."

"Dean, leave him alone. He's an angel. He wouldn't get the Earthly pleasures..." Sam said. His phone rang and he answered it. "Hello? Oh hey, Chuck, what's up?" He listened to the voice on the other end of the phone and nodded. "Not to let him out of our sight. Okay, I'll tell him. Thanks," he said, hanging up.

"So what did he want?" Dean asked. "More demon stuff?"

"No, he said that we'd be getting a visitor soon," Sam answered. "He said that he was important and we weren't allowed to let him out of our sight."

"He?" Cas spoke up. "Did he say anything else?"

"Well, apparently this visitor is Scottish."

"A Scottish demon?" Dean asked. "That's just great."

"I got the feeling that he is to be protected," Sam stated as he turned from his brother to face the road. "Dean! Watch out!" he exclaimed as a drenched figure suddenly appeared in front of the car.

"Shit!" Dean swore, slamming on the brakes, coming to a stop inches from the male figure, who had jumped back to avoid getting hit. "Demon?"

"Dunno," Sam said. "Cas?"

"I'm not picking up any demonic activity from him. He appears to be confused and lost." Castiel didn't mention that the soul was familiar to him. A drunken bathroom encounter sprang to mind, although he wasn't sure how much the other man remembered of it. "His soul is very bright."

"Well, let's not scare the locals," Dean said with a smile, before rolling down his window. "Problem?"

"Um, where the hell am I?" the man said in a distinctive Scottish accented voice as he leaned down to look in the window. The man was clad all in black with a hooded jumper pulled up over his hair.

Dean turned to look at his brother in shock, getting a shrug in reply. He turned back to the man. "Kansas."

"James, you're not in Cardiff any more," the man muttered. "Well, can you direct me to the nearest hotel please?"

"Sure. Hop in," Dean said, reaching in the glove compartment for the flask of whiskey mixed with holy water he had there. "You look like you could use a drink."

"Is it whiskey or at least something warming? It's bloody freezing out there." the man asked, opening the car door and climbing in next to Castiel. "Sorry, I'm dripping all over your seat."

"Did you break down or something?" Dean asked, watching in the rearview mirror as the man pulled down his hood to expose wet hair which was plastered to his forehead.

"No. I was back home, well, with some friends and I ended up on this road," the man answered, taking a swig from the flask. "Cheers. I'm James by the way." James shifted and patted his trousers pockets. "At least I managed to grab my wallet before I came here. Wish I'd grabbed a jacket too, but didn't expect to end up elsewhere."

"I'm Sam, Dean and our friend back there is Cas," Sam introduced as James handed back the flask. "So where did you say you came from?" He bent down, tugged out a towel from under the front seat and handed it to James. James yelped in surprise due to the silver knife hidden in the folds of the towel, cutting his palm but there was no other reaction. James handed it back to Sam, handle first. "Sorry, forgot I had that," Sam said, sliding the knife into the bag at his feet and handing James a bandage to wrap around his hand.

"You should get a knife box for that knife," James commented, indicating the bag. "Would be much safer."

"Yeah. So where you from?"

"Cardiff," James answered, towelling his hair dry and causing the dark red strands to stick out at all angles. "Wales."

"Wales?" Castiel asked, turning his head to look at James for the first time. "United Kingdom Wales?"

"The one and the same," James answered, turning to look at Castiel. They locked eyes and James squinted slightly but held the gaze. "Do I know you?"

Castiel flinched but leaned forward so he was almost nose to nose with James. "You were brought here for a reason," he stated calmly.

"Well, I wasn't swept up in a hurricane," James said sarcastically. He sighed and wrapped the towel around his shoulders. "Sorry. I'm just a bit... jet-lagged. Finding out that I've skipped time zones is not fun."

"Try travelling in time," Dean muttered, looking at James in the rear view mirror. "That's even worse."

"Already have," James stated plainly with a grin. "Uh, this might sound strange but what year is this?"

"Two thousand and eleven."

"Right. And the date?"

"January twenty third... Why?"

"Shit!" James swore. "The date I came from was April the seventeenth," he added, "two thousand and thirteen."

"So, you travelled in time?"

"Looks that way."

"I could have told you that," Castiel muttered. "He is obviously out of time slightly."

"At least it's a few years and not a few decades, eh, dude?" Sam said trying to calm James down.

"Yeah, I guess," James stated, seemingly unphased by Castiel's declaration that he knew James was out of time. He also seemed to be calm about the whole 'out of time' thing.

"So what are your plans until you catch up with your own time line?" Dean questioned.

"Not sure. Maybe tour around America. I only saw San Francisco last time I was here which was about two years, my time, ago. Oh, shit! I haven't even got a passport. It's back in Cardiff!" James sighed. "Never mind. I'll figure something out. At the moment, I just want to have a hot shower and a coffee." He jumped when Castiel decided to lean against him and rest his head on James' shoulder. "Your friend must be knackered."

"Mm," Dean muttered, surprised at Castiel's reaction. "He's not usually like this." He shared a look with Sam as the angel relaxed.

"It's not a problem. By the way, is that Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' you have playing on the radio there?" James asked, changing the subject.

"Yes. What of it?"

"Nothing. I like this song," James answered, flashing Dean a smile. "Very relaxing."

"At last. A man with good taste," Dean said in reply. "So, James, what do you do in Cardiff?"

"I'm a chef," James answered with a shrug. "At least I wasn't at work when I beamed over here. I also help my friends out when they need me." He shook his head. "I feel a little like Dorothy here."

"'Cept without the pigtails and the cute little dog," Dean joked.

"Left him back in Cardiff," James retorted. "I'm gonna get it if he'd heard that comment," he added with a smile. "Besides, I have the wrong hair colour for it."

"Right."

"So what now?"

"We get you your shower."

"Yeah. Thanks. You never said what you guys do," James pointed out.

"We're, uh, exterminators," Sam answered, hoping that James didn't notice the slight hesitation. From a certain point of view, it wasn't a lie.

If James had noticed, he kept that detail to himself. "So you get rid of bugs and other pests?"

"You could say that," Dean stated.

"Ew. Had a pest invasion at work just today, well, today where I'm from, anyway," James commented, reminding them that he was out of time and his own country. "Had to call in the Big Guns."

"Nice."

James caught the sarcasm in Dean's voice. "You don't say. At least this time, they didn't wreck the kitchen," he muttered.

"Don't worry, Dude, we'll get you back to your own time," Sam said, turning to look at James.

"Oh yeah? Got a time machine located in this car, have you?" James retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"No, it's in my other pants."

fanfiction, character: dean winchester, character: sam winchester, character: james (oc), character: castiel, series: the james tales, series: on the road

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