7. "You Really Are a Winchester."

It turned out that we weren't free to go that night, the doctor insisted that Castiel and I stay overnight to make sure we recovered. Grudgingly, we had no choice. I wasn't about to refuse doctor's orders, and I really wasn't feeling up to escaping a hospital with no change of clothes.

The hospital setting didn't help me sleep that night. Instead of dreaming of my attempt at being a hero, my mind decided to frighten me with nightmares, with Emily dead when I got to her. With me succumbing to the smoke. Me dying just as Castiel reaches me. Then the dream would shift, and then I'd really wish I'd have someone wake me. My dream would morph back into a piece of childhood I know I was way too young to remember.

It was back at my house in Lawrence, Kansas, back when I was two years old. Truthfully, I don't remember a lot about what happened. I just remember Dad shouting, hearing a loud noise, and rushing out with Dean with baby Sam (at the time) in his arms. I remember the house going up in smoke and fire, the firetruck lights, the firemen dowsing our house. Just the four of us out on that cold November night. The night that changed things. The night that changed the Winchester family dynamic forever.

It's no surprise that I wake up feeling more exhausted than how I felt going into sleep last night. That's definitely a bad sign. Maybe I'll be better once we're out of here. I look to see Castiel fast asleep. He twitches every now and again, nose wrinkles in concentration. It's almost cute—not that I'm trying to be a creep.

I slowly get out of the bed, searching for my phone. Wait, how are Sam and Dean supposed to know where we are if I don't have their numbers? I smack my forehead. I didn't think that far ahead, it seemed. Maybe Castiel knows.

I'm tempted to wake him with a loud noise or something, but I don't. He looks like he needs the sleep. So, like a Good Samaritan, I let him. I even find myself dozing back off again from the silence in our room. The silence is only possible with our room door being shut. The hospital noises are muffled enough to be considered almost silence.

Any shift I hear beside me has me awake at a second's notice. I need Dean's number to call so he and Sam can deliver my truck. Now I'm wondering if Castiel has to be at work today. Well, he'll have a reasonable excuse to miss one day.

With no shot of dozing off again, I sit up in the hospital bed, missing my own back at my place. Well, I'll be back today. I'll be back to babysitting a former angel again. My eyes shift to movement to my left.

"Morning, sunshine," I say. "You got Dean's number so I can call him?"

"I can't relieve myself first?"

I roll my eyes. "Fine, do what you have to. Or just tell me the number now so I can call him."

By the time I find my phone (I had initially overlooked it), Castiel has disappeared into the bathroom. I huff impatiently, trying not to focus on hearing him pee in the bathroom. I wrinkle my nose, glad to hear the flush of the toilet. I hound him the second his body leaves the bathroom for Dean's number. He has to repeat it twice after so I have the number right.

"And here I thought you called it quits," is my greeting.

"How could you possibly know it was me?" I retort.

"Cas told me the number so I put it in."

I glare at Castiel, who looks at me innocently. "I did call it quits. I need a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"Not hiding a body kind. I need you and Sam to pick up my truck and drive it to a hospital."

"Why? Josette, what did you do?"

"I didn't get into trouble." Castiel and I share daggers. "Okay, maybe I did get into a little bit of trouble. But I was trying to save a life!"

"I thought you were about lying low?"

"Yeah, well, a little girl trapped in a burning building is an exception to that motto."

"Let me guess: you bit off more than you could handle and nearly got yourself killed."

I sigh. "Castiel got me and the girl out of the building."

"Are you two okay?"

"Yeah, we'll be out today. So, about my truck..."

"Give me the address and we'll drive it to you. When are you getting out?"

"I don't know. Latest I'd think would be tonight."

"You'll have to catch a bus close to your place, Josette. We're a ways away from Idaho."

I huff. "Fine. I'm giving you the address anyway."

"You kind of have to. Wait, why do we have to do that if you can just take the bus to your truck?"

I smack my forehead. "Right. I could do that."

"Blonde moment, Jo?"

I grit my teeth. "I have a name, Dean. Might wanna start using it. I don't care if we're blood, you lost that right to call me any nickname."

I can practically hear Dean roll his eyes through the phone. "You make it sound like such a big deal."

"It is to me." I snort.

"How's he holding up?"

"He hasn't gotten hurt, if that's what you're asking. He hasn't died on my watch, and he won't. When are you gonna take him off my hands?" I put a little more annoyance than I'd expected myself to. It wasn't intentional.

"I don't know if we'll be able to, Jo."

I ignore the name. "I can't play babysitter."

"Sure you can. You're doing it now. A while longer won't kill you."

I scoff. "He was yours first, not mine. You're lucky I agreed to take him in."

"Some part of you has to miss it if you're keeping Cas with you."

"No, I'm just being a good person."

"Just take the bus and get your truck."

"Whenever you decide you want Castiel back, just make sure you call first, okay?"

"Will do."

No goodbyes are said as Dean ends the call. I sigh, feeling idiotic. How come I didn't think to just take a bus to the street I parked my truck on? Castiel could've told me that.

"Are they coming for the truck?" Castiel asks me.

I sigh. "Nope, we're taking a bus. If Dean hadn't suggested the idea, I could've been a bitch and told him and Sam to get it for us."

"Where are they?"

"Didn't say, just that they were a long ways away." I shrug. "Looks like you and I are taking the bus, Castiel, once we're free."

"Good, because I don't know about you, but I'm kind of tired of this place."

"That we can agree on."

* * *

I prefer my own method of transportation, so the bus isn't exactly a fun ride. Castiel doesn't seem to mind, he stares out of the window most of the time. I keep myself wary. I'm still not entirely sure what kind of danger Castiel brought along as baggage.

I practically run off the bus once we reach the street. I sigh, relieved, as I find my truck. Just as I'd left it yesterday. I pat the truck's hood. I hear Castiel almost inaudibly chuckle behind me. I half turn to him.

"What?" I ask.

"You, with your vehicle," he muses.

"What about it?"

Castiel moves around the front of the truck and opens the passenger side door as I open the driver's side. "You have an attachment to it."

I shut the door, Castiel follows. "It's been mine for years. It's become a part of me."

"Sounds like something Dean would say."

I turn on the engine. "Yeah, it does." In truth, for a while, the Impala had become a part of me. Really, it was more of a home than all the motel rooms Dad, Sam, Dean, and I had stayed at when we were younger. I honestly felt safer in that car than any of those rooms. "Still wanna do that trip to the park?"

"I don't know..."

"Come on, Castiel. We need the air." I check to make sure there's no traffic before I pull out onto the street. "We can just walk around and talk. I can let you in on some secrets."

"What kind?"

"Human secrets, not secrets about me." I smile.

"You really are a Winchester."

I frown a little. "What makes you say that?"

"You like to keep a lot to yourself, especially secrets."

"Yeah, well, with the life I live—or lived, I guess that's the proper tense—it's better that people don't know what I used to do."

"You make it sound like you did some awful things."

I swallow. Well, there is one thing, but that's none of your business. "Not really. I just did things most people would be called a loon for if other people heard them talking about that line of work. Sort of like how you would be seen as a lunatic for you talking about the chaos with Heaven and the angels."

"Mm," is the response I get out of him.

Needless to say it's a silent ride back to my place. Yes, I decide to give up on going to the park. I feel mentally exhausted, and I'm sure Castiel has to work at the Gas-N-Sip tomorrow or sometime very soon. Besides, we just survived going through a burning building. We need to recover at my place, not at a hospital.

We tiredly shuffle in, and my stomach rumbles at me. While Castiel heads down to the bathroom, I dig through my cabinets and fridge to see what I can cook up. What I come up with is TV dinners, because I'm that lazy. Truthfully, I never really got into cooking. When I was younger, Dean was more of the food provider when Dad wasn't around. Sam and I relied on him more for survival than Dad when he was around.

Castiel and I find ourselves in front of the TV, the dinners in our laps. He's adjusted well. So well that it's almost like he's been human since he's been in existence. I just don't understand why Dean and Sam can't take him in. Why did I find Castiel out on the road, anyway? There's a gap missing in this unfinished puzzle. In fact, there's a lot of pieces missing. But most of those pieces involve getting back into hunting, which I'm holding myself away from.

I made my choice for a reason all those years ago. I've stuck to it for a while now, I can't let myself get sucked back in. I took all those measures to ensure I wasn't found, that the life didn't come back knocking on my door with a case, or be in the form of my brothers.

But the life did come a knocking, it just came in the form of a former angel named Castiel.

**I can't, though. For real. These two <3**