Fic: Caught Up In Circles 3/5 (Supernatural; Dean/Cas/Lisa, PG-13)
Title: Caught Up In Circles
Author: misachan
Artist: chosenfire28
Fandom: Supernatural
Relationship(s)/Characters: Dean/Castiel/Lisa
Word Count: 4954
Rating: PG-13
Content Notes/Warnings: S6 AU; some sexual situations, a little voyeurism, rampant abuse of time travel
Summary: Five times Lisa Braeden met an angel of the Lord.
Lisa wondered if Castiel just had some kind of grudge against groceries; she'd just managed to kick the door closed behind her when he appeared barely a foot in front of her, swaying on his feet. There wasn't the instant recognition she remembered from the first two times; instead he tilted his head to the side, blinking at her like he couldn't make his eyes focus. "You...I think I know you...." he said, bracing one hand on the sofa as he kept swaying like he was on the deck of a ship. "You...dreams." He shook his head to clear it, looking around the room. "This isn't the right time at all, is it?"
And with that his legs buckled under him and Lisa dropped her grocery bag all over the floor to catch him before he could concuss himself against her coffee table. Up close she could see that his dress shirt was spotted with dried blood and just as she got her arms around him he fell into a convulsive coughing fit, leading to more blood dripping down from his lips. "Oh," he said when he brushed his fingers against his lips and saw the blood. "I wish that would stop happening."
Then his eyes rolled back and he went limp, almost dragging her down to the floor too. She managed to heave him over to the sofa and stretched him out before he started to stir again. "Shh," she said, putting one hand on his chest to steady him as his eyes snapped back open and darted around the room in a panic. "You're okay, you're okay." His breathing slowly eased as he stared at her. "What happened?"
"I was in the seventies," he said, as if that was a perfectly reasonable answer. He started coughing again and she fished some tissues out of her pocket to wipe the blood from his face. "Time travel never used to be this arduous."
"Whatever you say," she said, sliding a pillow under his back to prop him up. "What happened? What's the last thing you remember?"
"My brother coming to kill me." His words were still slurring together and Lisa pressed one hand against his forehead. "I felt his presence, couldn't...couldn't take my time. Escaped blind." His eyes started to flutter even as he tried to push himself back up. "I have to try again...waiting for me, I can't...."
Lisa pushed him back down to the sofa. "Yeah, I don't think you're going anywhere right now."
She heard her phone ring and picked it up when she saw Dean's name blinking on the screen. "Hey, Lise, I'm gonna be back late, someone just brought in a...."
"I think you should come home now."
"What? Why? What's going on?"
She just put her phone to Castiel's ear. "Say hi."
"Hello, Dean," he said, the most chagrined expression on his face she'd ever seen in her life.
She put the phone on speaker. "He said he came here from the seventies."
"Oh. Huh. How's he look?"
"Coughing up blood."
"Yeah, that happened then, too. Shit." She could hear people talking to him in the background, Dean muffling the phone as he answered back. "Okay, I can't skip out right away but I'll be there soon as I can. Don't tell him too much, okay?"
Lisa didn't answer that Dean would have to start talking to her about what had happened before she could tell anyone else. He hung up, leaving Castiel and Lisa to stare at each other. "Is Dean on a hunt?"
he asked, a wary tone to his voice.
"No, he's at work. He doesn't do that anymore."
Castiel nodded, his lips pressed into a tight line. "Why isn't Sam with him?"
At least that question she could answer honestly. "I don't know. I wish I did."
***
Dean didn't come home at all that night, which if Lisa was honest with herself she should have expected. He'd had that Tone in his voice, the one he used when he was telling her what he thought she wanted to hear. If he had so much trouble just talking about what had happened a year ago she shouldn't have been surprised that he'd have trouble walking in and seeing the past lying on the living room sofa.
It stung, though, and as she sat up with Castiel that night watching bad TV and explaining what a shamwow was and why the pitchman was so excited about it she could see it twist inside Castiel like a corkscrew. "Is Dean angry with me?"
Lisa gave up on regular TV and started scrolling through to see if they'd saved anything interesting on the DVR. "I don't know. I don't think so. I think it's easier for him to pretend nothing happened than to deal with what did. Whatever that was."
"Perhaps I never make it back. Or I died and Dean's worried he'll say something to change the past."
"That doesn't sound like Dean."
"No. It doesn't." His eyes unfocused for a moment and for a second Lisa thought he was going to pass out again. "I can't touch his dreams," he said, frustration edging his voice.
"I wouldn't let him know you're doing that."
His head tilted again in that confused bird expression. "He's never asked me to not." He slouched against the sofa, looking for all the world like Ben in the middle of a determined sulk. "But now he's imbibing to block me."
"Dean drinks. I wouldn't take it personally."
"I can tell the difference."
"Okay, then. Maybe he knows you'd snoop and doesn't want you to know something before you have to."
He lowered his gaze. "I suppose that could be true."
He looked so miserable Lisa went over to the closet and found an old quilt to throw over him. "My great-great grandmother started sewing that on the trip here from Europe. Try not to bleed on it, it's hard to get out." He looked so embarrassed about being so miserable Lisa felt bad about teasing him. "Sorry. I'm teasing, don't worry about it, Ben used to insist on sleeping under that every night when he was little so it's no stranger to stains."
"It's very well made," he said, and Lisa got to file "watch an angel snuggle under an heirloom quilt" to her mental list of things she never thought she would get to see.
"My aunt gave it to me when she moved down south. My whole family knows I never throw anything away. I still have every test Ben's ever brought home, even the bad ones." Especially the bad ones, nothing like a little evidence to back her up when she said his grades needed to go up or there'd be consequences.
"Dean's rarely sentimental about material things, except perhaps his car."
"I've been a pack rat forever. My mom says it started when my grandmother died, that holding onto everything was how I dealt with it. I still have the ballerina music box she gave me for my third birthday."
"Were the two of you close?"
Lisa pulled her knees up to her chest. "I just barely remember her, really. The accident happened the day after I turned three, and hardly anyone remembers anything from that far back. We look like we were in my mom's pictures."
"What kind of accident?"
"A car accident. She had a heart attack behind the wheel and drove off the road. I was so lucky; I was sitting in the front seat and the police found me afterward waiting by the side of the road, holding my little music box. The car caught fire and I walked away without a scratch on me. My mom always said it was a miracle. I dream about it sometimes. The accident," she said, tapping her fingernail against the arm of the chair. "Not the whole thing, just me sitting in my grandmother's car watching the cows graze in the field alongside the road, and then the dream always just stops. I don't even know if it's a real memory or just something I made up because I heard the story so many times." He started coughing again and she handed him the box of tissues. "You want some tea?"
She liked the way his brow furrowed when he didn't know what to say. "I don't know if I've ever had tea."
"Trust me, this is the perfect time for tea. You sound like you need all the lemon and honey in the world right now." By the time she came back with big mugs for both of them he was staring in befuddlement at an old episode of Project Runway.
"I don't understand what's happening on this program."
"They have to make clothes out of candy," she said, pressing the mug into his hands.
"Why?"
"Because it's the annual silly gimmick episode." She sat back down in her chair and took a sip of her own. "Okay, now it's my turn to ask personal questions," she said, making it clear in her tone that she wasn't at all offended by his asking.
"If you like," he said, his brow furrowing in that cute confused expression again.
She gave him a second to get comfortable before ambushing him. "Are you sleeping with Dean?" He choked on his tea and Lisa made very sure not to laugh. "I'm not mad if you are, I'm just wondering."
"No," he said, looking flabbergasted she'd even suggested it.
"Okay, okay, don't get upset. I was wondering."
"Why were you wondering?"
"Honestly? I've known a few people over the years who didn't really get how to be friends with people without all that tension and and I had kind of pegged Dean as one of them. He doesn't talk about people he knows all that often but when he does they're always women he's been with or older guys who hung around with his father. He's not really a hang out with the guys type." She took another sip of her tea and let that settle in. "He dreams about you sometimes. For a while I thought 'Cas' was a woman's name but I found out I was wrong. I'm surprised you didn't know that."
"I don't always listen to his dreams." Apparently being angel of the Lord did nothing to stop someone from blushing bright red. "And Dean doesn't feel that way about me."
"If you say so."
"His...energies of that nature are directed toward women," he insisted some more, as if she hadn't said anything.
"I can't help noticing that you're only going around denying that Dean could ever feel that way." Castiel didn't meet her eyes and she felt instant remorse for teasing him. "Oh, sweetie," she said, feeling absurdly like all the times she'd talked her girlfriends through a hopeless crush. "Tell him so you can stop torturing yourself."
"There's no point. If my vessel were more to his...his tastes, perhaps."
"I've seen him check out guys, so I'm sure your vessel or whatever that means is to his 'taste.' He tries to be slick about it but he really isn't. And he has major league crush on this actor on this terrible medical show he keeps trying to get me to watch." She knew she should feel guilty for enjoying watching him squirm this much but really, when was she going to get another chance? "Why are you so sure?"
He lowered his eyes again, the most mortified being on the planet. "I was facing a very dangerous battle in the morning, against an archangel who far outmatched me. In conversation Dean discovered that I had never...indulged in the pleasures of the flesh," he said, glancing up at her.
Lisa knew Dean well enough to imagine how that conversation had gone. "So what did he do?"
"He took me to a den of inequity."
Lisa had take a big sip of tea to keep from bursting out laughing. "He took you to a brothel?"
"Yes."
"So what happened?"
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Oh, honey. No one's that inexperienced."
"We didn't get that far. I said something to offend the woman and we had to leave. Dean did still seem to enjoy himself though," he said, as if there had been that silver lining, at least. He stared back down into his cooling tea. "On the car ride back there was a moment where...Dean pulled over and we sat by the side of the road for a while before continuing on. I think if he was so inclined toward me something would have happened then."
To Lisa all that sounded like was Dean losing his nerve. "You should have kissed him first and gotten it out of the way."
"It's too late for that now."
"Says the time traveler."
"It doesn't quite work that way," he said softly. He drummed his fingers against the side of the mug for a few moments. "Wouldn't you be angry if I had? I thought you and Dean were joined. Objections to that kind of indiscretion seems to be common among human couples."
"If I wanted a white picket fence relationship I wouldn't be with Dean Winchester. And besides, I think we both know Dean needs all the love he can possibly get." There was no possible way to argue with that and Lisa was glad to see he didn't try. "Besides, it would be fun to watch," she said, putting a leer into her voice to lighten the mood. "And I bet you're a great kisser."
"I certainly wouldn't know. Why would you think that?"
Because a while into your future you're going to kiss me right out of my shoes in a Louisiana bus station. "Just a good feeling." She put the cup on the table and walked over to him, straightening the quilt around his shoulders. "Do you want to see if I'm right?" Before he could properly figure out an answer to that she bent down and kissed him lightly on the lips and God, had she been right that he was someone who'd needed to be kissed; his lips parted under hers and he leaned up into it, as desperate and needy as a drowning man reaching for air. When she finally pulled back all she could see was wide blue eyes and flushed lips and didn't know what was wrong with Dean that he'd had that right in front of him and never done anything about it. "See? Told you."
He nodded, like he wasn't sure what to say and really, really hoped that was right. "I did like that."
"Good." She kissed his forehead before taking his empty mug and taking it back to the kitchen. "I'm heading upstairs for the night. Don't you dare fly off before saying goodbye."
He shook his head. "I don't think I'll be strong enough yet by morning."
"I'm sorry you feel bad but not sorry you'll stick around. Ben's at camp so the house gets pretty quiet," she said, ruffling his hair. "And I'm very sure Dean won't be able to hide out forever."
***
Dean finally did wander back home shortly after noon, looking as hung over as Lisa had ever seen him and holding a bouquet of roadside roses and a six-pack of microbrew, his usual "Yeah, I know, I fucked up," peace offering. He pulled up short when he saw Castiel still occupying the sofa and Lisa saw conflicted emotions flit across his face, first frustration at Castiel being there and then relief, she guessed at not having missed him after all and finally outright confusion. Which Lisa both understood and had to muster all of her willpower not to laugh at, because he'd walked in to find Castiel swaddled in an old quilt, sipping at a bowl of soup and staring transfixed at the TV as he and Lisa powered through a month's worth of recorded soap operas. "Hey, Lisa, Cas," he said, giving her a What the hell? look.
"Hello, Dean," Castiel answered, not taking his eyes from the screen. "Lisa, I thought these two were siblings."
"Oh, they are," she said, grinning back at Dean. "They just don't know it yet, their father's keeping that a secret."
"You're right, I'd forgotten about the blackmail plot."
"I don't blame you, the last few episodes have been all about the dumb teen romance story, it happens every year."
"Are they supposed to be teenagers?" he said, sounding astonished. "I thought I was better at judging human ages."
"Badly cast teenagers, anyway." She nodded to Dean, who still looked like he was tempted to walk back outside and come back in to see if things would make sense. "Have a seat, we'll catch you up."
"Think I'll pass, thanks," he said, looking back and forth at them like he was trying to figure out which of them was crazier. "Didn't expect you two to get so chummy so quick."
"Don't be jealous."
"I'm not...what?"
Lisa grinned. "I'm teasing you, babe. We've been bonding."
"Can you bond with my friends without wussing them up?"
"This program is actually quite violent," Castiel chimed in, seconds before an extremely well timed mysterious shooting. "And full of vice and the comeuppance of sinners. It reminds me of the morality plays humans performed in Europe a few centuries ago."
"You sound way too happy about sinners getting their comeuppance, Cas," Dean said as he rolled his eyes, but there was an affectionate indulgence behind the words Lisa hoped Castiel hadn't missed. "You guys...do whatever it is you're doing, I'm gonna see if I can finish off that transmission thing today."
He disappeared through the door to the garage, still shaking his head and Lisa couldn't help rolling her eyes. "No one who likes Dr. Sexy as much as he does should so much as think about sniffing at soaps." She glanced back at Castiel, who suddenly looked like the most miserable thing in the world. "You see? I told you he still thinks you're his friend."
Castiel kept staring after Dean. "I did manage to hear a fragment of a dream early this morning."
That didn't sound good at all. "What did you find out?"
"Something I'd expected. I regret having learned it."
"Okay. So now you know...whatever it is you know. What're you going to do about it?"
"There's nothing to do."
Lisa was honestly at the point where she was tempted to lock them both in a closet like characters on a bad sitcom. "Talk to him. Don't chicken out again."
"I've never chickened out," he said, frowning enough that she suspected he wasn't quite sure what that meant but knew it was insulting.
"My show's on and I'm not arguing. I'm just telling you that you're not allowed to fly out of my house without at least trying." And with that she deliberately turned her attention away to let him stew.
***
A few hours later Lisa started lugging a pile of clothes down to the laundry room when she lingered by the cracked open garage door; she was always happy to put off doing laundry for any reason and getting to spy on Dean sweaty and working on his car was one of the better distractions she could think of. The garage was packed with the Impala squeezed in there but he'd hauled it out of storage while he tried to figure out what was wrong with it, not trusting anyone else to touch his baby. She thought she might be jealous if she hadn't spent so much happy time in its backseat.
She was about to tear herself away to go back to being a responsible adult when she heard that sound of wings beating; before she could blink she saw Castiel standing right there behind Dean, his hands clenched into tight fists at his side. "We need to talk, Dean," he said, suddenly enough that Dean almost banged his head on the Impala's open hood in surprise.
"We got nothing to talk about," he said, closing the hood carefully.
"I overheard your dream this morning," Castiel said, and Lisa saw Dean's expression turn guarded. "The one where you were speaking to Sam. What did you mean when you told him you would 'trade for you in a second'?"
Lisa pressed one hand to her mouth and Dean looked stricken, something he quickly buried under anger. "Don't eavesdrop if you don't want to find stuff out."
"Where is Sam?" Castiel asked, his voice soft and defeated.
"Doesn't matter. I can't tell you anyway, it hasn't happened for you yet, it'll just mess everything up."
"Since when did you care about that?"
"Quit talking to me about this, Cas."
Lisa saw Castiel's shoulders slump as Dean turned his attention back to the car. "I would trade places with Sam if I could, whatever's happened."
"Yeah, well, that's really not true."
Castiel looked like he'd been slapped. "Why would you say that?"
"I don't know, probably 'cause I live in reality. You won't, that's it."
"I can't do anything if you don't give me any information...."
"And I'm going to keep on not telling you a damn thing because I promised my brother I wouldn't do anything stupid and I'm not breaking my word, Cas, not for anyone and definitely not for you."
Lisa winced at the utterly destroyed look on Castiel's face. "What did I do to make you so angry with me?"
Dean's lips curled into an ugly smirk. "Nothing, Cas. Kind of the problem." She could see Castiel finally on the edge of losing his temper but as he started to turn away Dean grabbed his arm. "Cas, look, what you heard...just 'cause I dreamed that doesn't mean I'd do it, okay? My head's a fucked up place at the best of times."
Castiel looked like he believed exactly none of that. "I was so relieved to come here and have confirmation you don't say yes to Michael. Now I feel like I can't trust anything."
"Never said I didn't say yes. Never said anything one way or the other."
"Do I not make it back? I that why you feel like I abandoned you?"
"I'm not telling you anything, Cas."
Lisa supposed it was inevitable, this was was the longest Castiel had been on his feet since he'd practically crash landed in her living room but as Dean turned away to bring an end to the conversation she saw Castiel start to sway. He braced one hand against the Impala's fender and fumbled the other one toward Dean, not quite managing to reach him before his knees buckled. Dean noticed at the last possible moment and lunged to catch him, just grabbing him under his shoulders. "Whoa, easy, Cas, easy." He hauled him back up and leaned him against the car. "I thought your tank was back to full."
"Clearly not."
Dean tipped his chin up, trying to look into his eyes. "This time travel shit really takes it out of you, huh?"
"Perhaps Michael's attack damaged me more than I'd thought."
Lisa wasn't really sure what that meant but it certainly seemed to scare the hell out of Dean. "What do you mean? When did he get his hands on you?"
"When he...." He got shaky on his feet again and Dean held him up. Lisa didn't think anything brought out the best in Dean like someone who needed to be taken care of. "When he burned Anna," Castiel finally continued, his voice barely audible. "He made the attack echo. I think he intended it to be a warning."
"That's not how any of us wanted that to go down, Cas, you gotta know that."
"Do I make it back to that motel room? At least tell me that much."
Dean shook his head. "Can't tell you anything, Cas. You gotta know that, too."
Castiel just stared at Dean for a few endless moments, long enough that Lisa felt the tension coil around her and she wasn't even in the room. "C'mon," she whispered. "C'mon, this is your chance, don't blow it."
While she doubted he heard her he did take her advice; as Dean started to step away Castiel leaned forward and kissed Dean on the lips, pulling Dean back against him. It didn't last as long as the windswept kiss he'd planted on her at the bus station but when Dean came up for air she could see it had just as much of an effect. "The hell, Cas?" Dean said, sounding like he was doubting his senses.
"I seem to have very little to lose at the moment," he said, a hard, despairing edge to his voice. He tried to shake Dean off but Dean wouldn't let him go. "If you don't want me to trouble you anymore I'll...."
"You are the dumbest son of a bitch in the world sometimes," he said, kissing him hard enough to press him back against the car and Lisa dearly loved being right. And Dean seemed to think they'd wasted enough time; in seconds he had Castiel's trenchcoat and suit jacket on the floor and was starting in on his shirt buttons, like if he didn't get those clothes off immediately he was going to wake up to find this had been a particularly cruel dream. Castiel moaned as Dean kissed down his chest before all but ripping the shirt off of him.
Castiel leaned back, and Lisa didn't know if he was intentionally draping himself all over the hood of Dean's car but Dean let out of strangled little moan of appreciation that immediately went to the top Lisa's list of favorite sounds ever. "Jesus, Cas," he said, pulling off his own shirt and trailing one hand down his body. "Like the way you look there."
Castiel's tie was still looped around his neck and Dean used it pull him up into another kiss. She could just barely make out Dean tell him, "Let's see how you look in the backseat," before she eased the door closed; she could only bring herself to abuse her "I own the house" privileges for so long.
Besides, she'd just have to get the full report later.
A few hours later she found Castiel sitting on the sofa, looking better than he had in days and more than a little starry-eyed. She leaned over the back of the sofa suddenly enough that he jumped in surprise. "Wasn't sure you were still here."
"I thought you'd be upset if I left without a word."
Lisa couldn't help grinning. "I told you." He blushed red and she didn't even try not to laugh. "I think the next time I see you you owe me at least a really nice kiss." The words slipped out before Lisa even realized what she was saying.
He turned and looked at her like she'd just asked him to swear a solemn vow. "You have my word."
And with that he was gone with just that quick flutter of wings to mark his departure. Lisa shook her head and made her way upstairs, where she found Dean just coming out of the bathroom wearing a fresh set of clothes with his hair still damp. "Mmm," she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. "You smell nice."
"I manage that sometimes. Cas head out?"
"Fluttered off a few minutes ago. Did you two work things out?"
"Much as we're going to. Think I managed to not wreck time. Hoping, anyway."
"Mm hmm," she said, kissing the curve of his neck. "So, how did he look in your backseat?"
She was just amazing at making hot men blush today. "You are such a snoop."
"If it helps, I wasn't trying to snoop. You left the door open."
Dean rubbed one hand over his face, leaning against the wall and looking like he was giving serious thought to jumping out the window. She didn't let him pull away and just stood there until he could manage to put words together again. "You cool with that? I mean, really?" he said, still not quite looking at her.
"Yes, because I historically have such problems with the idea of you sleeping with beautiful men. That sounds like me. I didn't ask for that for my birthday at all. And that is totally back on the table, by the way."
"Thought you were kidding about that."
"Only if you were kidding about asking my friend who used to be a showgirl in Vegas to join us for yours." She slid one hand past his waist band. "I am a little put out you didn't invite me to watch. Very, very selfish."
"Well, y'know. Cas' first time. Wanted to make sure it was special."
"Uh huh. Be honest, how long have you wanted to do that?"
Dean just grinned at that, refusing to implicate himself. "You're a pretty awesome chick, you know that?"
"I manage that sometimes. So," she said, nibbling on his ear, "since we've established how selfish you are, I think the only way to make up for it is for us to go upstairs while you tell me everything that happened in excruciating detail."
She felt those expert hands of his slide up under her blouse and unhook her bra faster than she'd ever learned to do it. "What's wrong with my backseat, since I have the car here? Good enough for angels of the Lord, y'know."
Lisa really wasn't sure if she believed in marriage but she'd never wanted to marry anyone more than Dean Winchester right then. "No reason we can't do both."
***
-On To Part 4
-Back To Masterpost-
-Back To Part 2-
Author: misachan
Artist: chosenfire28
Fandom: Supernatural
Relationship(s)/Characters: Dean/Castiel/Lisa
Word Count: 4954
Rating: PG-13
Content Notes/Warnings: S6 AU; some sexual situations, a little voyeurism, rampant abuse of time travel
Summary: Five times Lisa Braeden met an angel of the Lord.
Lisa wondered if Castiel just had some kind of grudge against groceries; she'd just managed to kick the door closed behind her when he appeared barely a foot in front of her, swaying on his feet. There wasn't the instant recognition she remembered from the first two times; instead he tilted his head to the side, blinking at her like he couldn't make his eyes focus. "You...I think I know you...." he said, bracing one hand on the sofa as he kept swaying like he was on the deck of a ship. "You...dreams." He shook his head to clear it, looking around the room. "This isn't the right time at all, is it?"
And with that his legs buckled under him and Lisa dropped her grocery bag all over the floor to catch him before he could concuss himself against her coffee table. Up close she could see that his dress shirt was spotted with dried blood and just as she got her arms around him he fell into a convulsive coughing fit, leading to more blood dripping down from his lips. "Oh," he said when he brushed his fingers against his lips and saw the blood. "I wish that would stop happening."
Then his eyes rolled back and he went limp, almost dragging her down to the floor too. She managed to heave him over to the sofa and stretched him out before he started to stir again. "Shh," she said, putting one hand on his chest to steady him as his eyes snapped back open and darted around the room in a panic. "You're okay, you're okay." His breathing slowly eased as he stared at her. "What happened?"
"I was in the seventies," he said, as if that was a perfectly reasonable answer. He started coughing again and she fished some tissues out of her pocket to wipe the blood from his face. "Time travel never used to be this arduous."
"Whatever you say," she said, sliding a pillow under his back to prop him up. "What happened? What's the last thing you remember?"
"My brother coming to kill me." His words were still slurring together and Lisa pressed one hand against his forehead. "I felt his presence, couldn't...couldn't take my time. Escaped blind." His eyes started to flutter even as he tried to push himself back up. "I have to try again...waiting for me, I can't...."
Lisa pushed him back down to the sofa. "Yeah, I don't think you're going anywhere right now."
She heard her phone ring and picked it up when she saw Dean's name blinking on the screen. "Hey, Lise, I'm gonna be back late, someone just brought in a...."
"I think you should come home now."
"What? Why? What's going on?"
She just put her phone to Castiel's ear. "Say hi."
"Hello, Dean," he said, the most chagrined expression on his face she'd ever seen in her life.
She put the phone on speaker. "He said he came here from the seventies."
"Oh. Huh. How's he look?"
"Coughing up blood."
"Yeah, that happened then, too. Shit." She could hear people talking to him in the background, Dean muffling the phone as he answered back. "Okay, I can't skip out right away but I'll be there soon as I can. Don't tell him too much, okay?"
Lisa didn't answer that Dean would have to start talking to her about what had happened before she could tell anyone else. He hung up, leaving Castiel and Lisa to stare at each other. "Is Dean on a hunt?"
he asked, a wary tone to his voice.
"No, he's at work. He doesn't do that anymore."
Castiel nodded, his lips pressed into a tight line. "Why isn't Sam with him?"
At least that question she could answer honestly. "I don't know. I wish I did."
***
Dean didn't come home at all that night, which if Lisa was honest with herself she should have expected. He'd had that Tone in his voice, the one he used when he was telling her what he thought she wanted to hear. If he had so much trouble just talking about what had happened a year ago she shouldn't have been surprised that he'd have trouble walking in and seeing the past lying on the living room sofa.
It stung, though, and as she sat up with Castiel that night watching bad TV and explaining what a shamwow was and why the pitchman was so excited about it she could see it twist inside Castiel like a corkscrew. "Is Dean angry with me?"
Lisa gave up on regular TV and started scrolling through to see if they'd saved anything interesting on the DVR. "I don't know. I don't think so. I think it's easier for him to pretend nothing happened than to deal with what did. Whatever that was."
"Perhaps I never make it back. Or I died and Dean's worried he'll say something to change the past."
"That doesn't sound like Dean."
"No. It doesn't." His eyes unfocused for a moment and for a second Lisa thought he was going to pass out again. "I can't touch his dreams," he said, frustration edging his voice.
"I wouldn't let him know you're doing that."
His head tilted again in that confused bird expression. "He's never asked me to not." He slouched against the sofa, looking for all the world like Ben in the middle of a determined sulk. "But now he's imbibing to block me."
"Dean drinks. I wouldn't take it personally."
"I can tell the difference."
"Okay, then. Maybe he knows you'd snoop and doesn't want you to know something before you have to."
He lowered his gaze. "I suppose that could be true."
He looked so miserable Lisa went over to the closet and found an old quilt to throw over him. "My great-great grandmother started sewing that on the trip here from Europe. Try not to bleed on it, it's hard to get out." He looked so embarrassed about being so miserable Lisa felt bad about teasing him. "Sorry. I'm teasing, don't worry about it, Ben used to insist on sleeping under that every night when he was little so it's no stranger to stains."
"It's very well made," he said, and Lisa got to file "watch an angel snuggle under an heirloom quilt" to her mental list of things she never thought she would get to see.
"My aunt gave it to me when she moved down south. My whole family knows I never throw anything away. I still have every test Ben's ever brought home, even the bad ones." Especially the bad ones, nothing like a little evidence to back her up when she said his grades needed to go up or there'd be consequences.
"Dean's rarely sentimental about material things, except perhaps his car."
"I've been a pack rat forever. My mom says it started when my grandmother died, that holding onto everything was how I dealt with it. I still have the ballerina music box she gave me for my third birthday."
"Were the two of you close?"
Lisa pulled her knees up to her chest. "I just barely remember her, really. The accident happened the day after I turned three, and hardly anyone remembers anything from that far back. We look like we were in my mom's pictures."
"What kind of accident?"
"A car accident. She had a heart attack behind the wheel and drove off the road. I was so lucky; I was sitting in the front seat and the police found me afterward waiting by the side of the road, holding my little music box. The car caught fire and I walked away without a scratch on me. My mom always said it was a miracle. I dream about it sometimes. The accident," she said, tapping her fingernail against the arm of the chair. "Not the whole thing, just me sitting in my grandmother's car watching the cows graze in the field alongside the road, and then the dream always just stops. I don't even know if it's a real memory or just something I made up because I heard the story so many times." He started coughing again and she handed him the box of tissues. "You want some tea?"
She liked the way his brow furrowed when he didn't know what to say. "I don't know if I've ever had tea."
"Trust me, this is the perfect time for tea. You sound like you need all the lemon and honey in the world right now." By the time she came back with big mugs for both of them he was staring in befuddlement at an old episode of Project Runway.
"I don't understand what's happening on this program."
"They have to make clothes out of candy," she said, pressing the mug into his hands.
"Why?"
"Because it's the annual silly gimmick episode." She sat back down in her chair and took a sip of her own. "Okay, now it's my turn to ask personal questions," she said, making it clear in her tone that she wasn't at all offended by his asking.
"If you like," he said, his brow furrowing in that cute confused expression again.
She gave him a second to get comfortable before ambushing him. "Are you sleeping with Dean?" He choked on his tea and Lisa made very sure not to laugh. "I'm not mad if you are, I'm just wondering."
"No," he said, looking flabbergasted she'd even suggested it.
"Okay, okay, don't get upset. I was wondering."
"Why were you wondering?"
"Honestly? I've known a few people over the years who didn't really get how to be friends with people without all that tension and and I had kind of pegged Dean as one of them. He doesn't talk about people he knows all that often but when he does they're always women he's been with or older guys who hung around with his father. He's not really a hang out with the guys type." She took another sip of her tea and let that settle in. "He dreams about you sometimes. For a while I thought 'Cas' was a woman's name but I found out I was wrong. I'm surprised you didn't know that."
"I don't always listen to his dreams." Apparently being angel of the Lord did nothing to stop someone from blushing bright red. "And Dean doesn't feel that way about me."
"If you say so."
"His...energies of that nature are directed toward women," he insisted some more, as if she hadn't said anything.
"I can't help noticing that you're only going around denying that Dean could ever feel that way." Castiel didn't meet her eyes and she felt instant remorse for teasing him. "Oh, sweetie," she said, feeling absurdly like all the times she'd talked her girlfriends through a hopeless crush. "Tell him so you can stop torturing yourself."
"There's no point. If my vessel were more to his...his tastes, perhaps."
"I've seen him check out guys, so I'm sure your vessel or whatever that means is to his 'taste.' He tries to be slick about it but he really isn't. And he has major league crush on this actor on this terrible medical show he keeps trying to get me to watch." She knew she should feel guilty for enjoying watching him squirm this much but really, when was she going to get another chance? "Why are you so sure?"
He lowered his eyes again, the most mortified being on the planet. "I was facing a very dangerous battle in the morning, against an archangel who far outmatched me. In conversation Dean discovered that I had never...indulged in the pleasures of the flesh," he said, glancing up at her.
Lisa knew Dean well enough to imagine how that conversation had gone. "So what did he do?"
"He took me to a den of inequity."
Lisa had take a big sip of tea to keep from bursting out laughing. "He took you to a brothel?"
"Yes."
"So what happened?"
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Oh, honey. No one's that inexperienced."
"We didn't get that far. I said something to offend the woman and we had to leave. Dean did still seem to enjoy himself though," he said, as if there had been that silver lining, at least. He stared back down into his cooling tea. "On the car ride back there was a moment where...Dean pulled over and we sat by the side of the road for a while before continuing on. I think if he was so inclined toward me something would have happened then."
To Lisa all that sounded like was Dean losing his nerve. "You should have kissed him first and gotten it out of the way."
"It's too late for that now."
"Says the time traveler."
"It doesn't quite work that way," he said softly. He drummed his fingers against the side of the mug for a few moments. "Wouldn't you be angry if I had? I thought you and Dean were joined. Objections to that kind of indiscretion seems to be common among human couples."
"If I wanted a white picket fence relationship I wouldn't be with Dean Winchester. And besides, I think we both know Dean needs all the love he can possibly get." There was no possible way to argue with that and Lisa was glad to see he didn't try. "Besides, it would be fun to watch," she said, putting a leer into her voice to lighten the mood. "And I bet you're a great kisser."
"I certainly wouldn't know. Why would you think that?"
Because a while into your future you're going to kiss me right out of my shoes in a Louisiana bus station. "Just a good feeling." She put the cup on the table and walked over to him, straightening the quilt around his shoulders. "Do you want to see if I'm right?" Before he could properly figure out an answer to that she bent down and kissed him lightly on the lips and God, had she been right that he was someone who'd needed to be kissed; his lips parted under hers and he leaned up into it, as desperate and needy as a drowning man reaching for air. When she finally pulled back all she could see was wide blue eyes and flushed lips and didn't know what was wrong with Dean that he'd had that right in front of him and never done anything about it. "See? Told you."
He nodded, like he wasn't sure what to say and really, really hoped that was right. "I did like that."
"Good." She kissed his forehead before taking his empty mug and taking it back to the kitchen. "I'm heading upstairs for the night. Don't you dare fly off before saying goodbye."
He shook his head. "I don't think I'll be strong enough yet by morning."
"I'm sorry you feel bad but not sorry you'll stick around. Ben's at camp so the house gets pretty quiet," she said, ruffling his hair. "And I'm very sure Dean won't be able to hide out forever."
***
Dean finally did wander back home shortly after noon, looking as hung over as Lisa had ever seen him and holding a bouquet of roadside roses and a six-pack of microbrew, his usual "Yeah, I know, I fucked up," peace offering. He pulled up short when he saw Castiel still occupying the sofa and Lisa saw conflicted emotions flit across his face, first frustration at Castiel being there and then relief, she guessed at not having missed him after all and finally outright confusion. Which Lisa both understood and had to muster all of her willpower not to laugh at, because he'd walked in to find Castiel swaddled in an old quilt, sipping at a bowl of soup and staring transfixed at the TV as he and Lisa powered through a month's worth of recorded soap operas. "Hey, Lisa, Cas," he said, giving her a What the hell? look.
"Hello, Dean," Castiel answered, not taking his eyes from the screen. "Lisa, I thought these two were siblings."
"Oh, they are," she said, grinning back at Dean. "They just don't know it yet, their father's keeping that a secret."
"You're right, I'd forgotten about the blackmail plot."
"I don't blame you, the last few episodes have been all about the dumb teen romance story, it happens every year."
"Are they supposed to be teenagers?" he said, sounding astonished. "I thought I was better at judging human ages."
"Badly cast teenagers, anyway." She nodded to Dean, who still looked like he was tempted to walk back outside and come back in to see if things would make sense. "Have a seat, we'll catch you up."
"Think I'll pass, thanks," he said, looking back and forth at them like he was trying to figure out which of them was crazier. "Didn't expect you two to get so chummy so quick."
"Don't be jealous."
"I'm not...what?"
Lisa grinned. "I'm teasing you, babe. We've been bonding."
"Can you bond with my friends without wussing them up?"
"This program is actually quite violent," Castiel chimed in, seconds before an extremely well timed mysterious shooting. "And full of vice and the comeuppance of sinners. It reminds me of the morality plays humans performed in Europe a few centuries ago."
"You sound way too happy about sinners getting their comeuppance, Cas," Dean said as he rolled his eyes, but there was an affectionate indulgence behind the words Lisa hoped Castiel hadn't missed. "You guys...do whatever it is you're doing, I'm gonna see if I can finish off that transmission thing today."
He disappeared through the door to the garage, still shaking his head and Lisa couldn't help rolling her eyes. "No one who likes Dr. Sexy as much as he does should so much as think about sniffing at soaps." She glanced back at Castiel, who suddenly looked like the most miserable thing in the world. "You see? I told you he still thinks you're his friend."
Castiel kept staring after Dean. "I did manage to hear a fragment of a dream early this morning."
That didn't sound good at all. "What did you find out?"
"Something I'd expected. I regret having learned it."
"Okay. So now you know...whatever it is you know. What're you going to do about it?"
"There's nothing to do."
Lisa was honestly at the point where she was tempted to lock them both in a closet like characters on a bad sitcom. "Talk to him. Don't chicken out again."
"I've never chickened out," he said, frowning enough that she suspected he wasn't quite sure what that meant but knew it was insulting.
"My show's on and I'm not arguing. I'm just telling you that you're not allowed to fly out of my house without at least trying." And with that she deliberately turned her attention away to let him stew.
***
A few hours later Lisa started lugging a pile of clothes down to the laundry room when she lingered by the cracked open garage door; she was always happy to put off doing laundry for any reason and getting to spy on Dean sweaty and working on his car was one of the better distractions she could think of. The garage was packed with the Impala squeezed in there but he'd hauled it out of storage while he tried to figure out what was wrong with it, not trusting anyone else to touch his baby. She thought she might be jealous if she hadn't spent so much happy time in its backseat.
She was about to tear herself away to go back to being a responsible adult when she heard that sound of wings beating; before she could blink she saw Castiel standing right there behind Dean, his hands clenched into tight fists at his side. "We need to talk, Dean," he said, suddenly enough that Dean almost banged his head on the Impala's open hood in surprise.
"We got nothing to talk about," he said, closing the hood carefully.
"I overheard your dream this morning," Castiel said, and Lisa saw Dean's expression turn guarded. "The one where you were speaking to Sam. What did you mean when you told him you would 'trade for you in a second'?"
Lisa pressed one hand to her mouth and Dean looked stricken, something he quickly buried under anger. "Don't eavesdrop if you don't want to find stuff out."
"Where is Sam?" Castiel asked, his voice soft and defeated.
"Doesn't matter. I can't tell you anyway, it hasn't happened for you yet, it'll just mess everything up."
"Since when did you care about that?"
"Quit talking to me about this, Cas."
Lisa saw Castiel's shoulders slump as Dean turned his attention back to the car. "I would trade places with Sam if I could, whatever's happened."
"Yeah, well, that's really not true."
Castiel looked like he'd been slapped. "Why would you say that?"
"I don't know, probably 'cause I live in reality. You won't, that's it."
"I can't do anything if you don't give me any information...."
"And I'm going to keep on not telling you a damn thing because I promised my brother I wouldn't do anything stupid and I'm not breaking my word, Cas, not for anyone and definitely not for you."
Lisa winced at the utterly destroyed look on Castiel's face. "What did I do to make you so angry with me?"
Dean's lips curled into an ugly smirk. "Nothing, Cas. Kind of the problem." She could see Castiel finally on the edge of losing his temper but as he started to turn away Dean grabbed his arm. "Cas, look, what you heard...just 'cause I dreamed that doesn't mean I'd do it, okay? My head's a fucked up place at the best of times."
Castiel looked like he believed exactly none of that. "I was so relieved to come here and have confirmation you don't say yes to Michael. Now I feel like I can't trust anything."
"Never said I didn't say yes. Never said anything one way or the other."
"Do I not make it back? I that why you feel like I abandoned you?"
"I'm not telling you anything, Cas."
Lisa supposed it was inevitable, this was was the longest Castiel had been on his feet since he'd practically crash landed in her living room but as Dean turned away to bring an end to the conversation she saw Castiel start to sway. He braced one hand against the Impala's fender and fumbled the other one toward Dean, not quite managing to reach him before his knees buckled. Dean noticed at the last possible moment and lunged to catch him, just grabbing him under his shoulders. "Whoa, easy, Cas, easy." He hauled him back up and leaned him against the car. "I thought your tank was back to full."
"Clearly not."
Dean tipped his chin up, trying to look into his eyes. "This time travel shit really takes it out of you, huh?"
"Perhaps Michael's attack damaged me more than I'd thought."
Lisa wasn't really sure what that meant but it certainly seemed to scare the hell out of Dean. "What do you mean? When did he get his hands on you?"
"When he...." He got shaky on his feet again and Dean held him up. Lisa didn't think anything brought out the best in Dean like someone who needed to be taken care of. "When he burned Anna," Castiel finally continued, his voice barely audible. "He made the attack echo. I think he intended it to be a warning."
"That's not how any of us wanted that to go down, Cas, you gotta know that."
"Do I make it back to that motel room? At least tell me that much."
Dean shook his head. "Can't tell you anything, Cas. You gotta know that, too."
Castiel just stared at Dean for a few endless moments, long enough that Lisa felt the tension coil around her and she wasn't even in the room. "C'mon," she whispered. "C'mon, this is your chance, don't blow it."
While she doubted he heard her he did take her advice; as Dean started to step away Castiel leaned forward and kissed Dean on the lips, pulling Dean back against him. It didn't last as long as the windswept kiss he'd planted on her at the bus station but when Dean came up for air she could see it had just as much of an effect. "The hell, Cas?" Dean said, sounding like he was doubting his senses.
"I seem to have very little to lose at the moment," he said, a hard, despairing edge to his voice. He tried to shake Dean off but Dean wouldn't let him go. "If you don't want me to trouble you anymore I'll...."
"You are the dumbest son of a bitch in the world sometimes," he said, kissing him hard enough to press him back against the car and Lisa dearly loved being right. And Dean seemed to think they'd wasted enough time; in seconds he had Castiel's trenchcoat and suit jacket on the floor and was starting in on his shirt buttons, like if he didn't get those clothes off immediately he was going to wake up to find this had been a particularly cruel dream. Castiel moaned as Dean kissed down his chest before all but ripping the shirt off of him.
Castiel leaned back, and Lisa didn't know if he was intentionally draping himself all over the hood of Dean's car but Dean let out of strangled little moan of appreciation that immediately went to the top Lisa's list of favorite sounds ever. "Jesus, Cas," he said, pulling off his own shirt and trailing one hand down his body. "Like the way you look there."
Castiel's tie was still looped around his neck and Dean used it pull him up into another kiss. She could just barely make out Dean tell him, "Let's see how you look in the backseat," before she eased the door closed; she could only bring herself to abuse her "I own the house" privileges for so long.
Besides, she'd just have to get the full report later.
A few hours later she found Castiel sitting on the sofa, looking better than he had in days and more than a little starry-eyed. She leaned over the back of the sofa suddenly enough that he jumped in surprise. "Wasn't sure you were still here."
"I thought you'd be upset if I left without a word."
Lisa couldn't help grinning. "I told you." He blushed red and she didn't even try not to laugh. "I think the next time I see you you owe me at least a really nice kiss." The words slipped out before Lisa even realized what she was saying.
He turned and looked at her like she'd just asked him to swear a solemn vow. "You have my word."
And with that he was gone with just that quick flutter of wings to mark his departure. Lisa shook her head and made her way upstairs, where she found Dean just coming out of the bathroom wearing a fresh set of clothes with his hair still damp. "Mmm," she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. "You smell nice."
"I manage that sometimes. Cas head out?"
"Fluttered off a few minutes ago. Did you two work things out?"
"Much as we're going to. Think I managed to not wreck time. Hoping, anyway."
"Mm hmm," she said, kissing the curve of his neck. "So, how did he look in your backseat?"
She was just amazing at making hot men blush today. "You are such a snoop."
"If it helps, I wasn't trying to snoop. You left the door open."
Dean rubbed one hand over his face, leaning against the wall and looking like he was giving serious thought to jumping out the window. She didn't let him pull away and just stood there until he could manage to put words together again. "You cool with that? I mean, really?" he said, still not quite looking at her.
"Yes, because I historically have such problems with the idea of you sleeping with beautiful men. That sounds like me. I didn't ask for that for my birthday at all. And that is totally back on the table, by the way."
"Thought you were kidding about that."
"Only if you were kidding about asking my friend who used to be a showgirl in Vegas to join us for yours." She slid one hand past his waist band. "I am a little put out you didn't invite me to watch. Very, very selfish."
"Well, y'know. Cas' first time. Wanted to make sure it was special."
"Uh huh. Be honest, how long have you wanted to do that?"
Dean just grinned at that, refusing to implicate himself. "You're a pretty awesome chick, you know that?"
"I manage that sometimes. So," she said, nibbling on his ear, "since we've established how selfish you are, I think the only way to make up for it is for us to go upstairs while you tell me everything that happened in excruciating detail."
She felt those expert hands of his slide up under her blouse and unhook her bra faster than she'd ever learned to do it. "What's wrong with my backseat, since I have the car here? Good enough for angels of the Lord, y'know."
Lisa really wasn't sure if she believed in marriage but she'd never wanted to marry anyone more than Dean Winchester right then. "No reason we can't do both."
***
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