Vagary

“How much longer ’til we get there?” I ask looking over to the GPS on the dashboard.

Jody shrugs. “Thirty more minutes maybe,” She says. “Should we stop and pick something up for dinner? It’s awfully close to it. Would they have food with them?”

“Knowing the Winchesters…no.” I answer.

I look out the window and watch as the trees and house after house goes by. I decide to try and count each house that we pass by, but my thoughts keep drifting off to what’s really on my mind, the fact that I actually convinced Jody to take this trip out to the Winchester’s Bunker and visit for a couple days.

I think this trip will let me prove that I can hunt like one of them, and that I should just come and stay at the Bunker.

I know that there’s an incredibly small chance that they will let me stay, but I’m going to take it.

^^^^

I hold the bag of burgers while Jody knocks on the door. She knocks a weird rhythm. A few seconds later, Sam opens the door, welcoming us with a smile.

“Hey Jody, Claire,” He says as he grabs one of the suitcases that Jody was carrying. “Come in,”

I notice that Sam looks happier. His smile reached his eyes, and I can’t help but wonder what’s making him so happy. I thought about asking him what it was, but instead shake my head and decide no.

“Hiya Jody,” Dean says as we ascend the stairs.

When Jody sits the suitcase down, she opens a hug out to him. He happily accepts it with a small smile. I quickly walk to the table and set down the bag of burgers, their insane warmth was about to burn my arms.

“We figured you wouldn’t have dinner so we brought some.” Jody says as they walk to the table.

“Yes!” Dean says excitedly as he pulls out a burger wrapped in wax paper.

“Hello Claire,”

I turn around to see Castiel standing in front of me. He looks relaxed and rested, in that moment he almost had an expression that my father would have used and I wanted to call him dad.

Instead I hug him and say, “Hey Cas,”

When he releases me from the hug, he holds my shoulders and brings me out to arm length. He looks me over. “Have you been okay recently? No fights? No missing school?”

I shake my head, feeling a bit proud. “I’ve actually been extremely good.”

Castiel smiles, “That’s awesome.” He lets me go and looks to the table. “Oh burgers,” He steps closer.

“Ellie, come get your grub!” Dean yells.

I look towards him with my eyebrows raised up. Who was Ellie? I walk to the table and grab a burger of my own. I glance to Jody and see that she was confused, too.

A girl, who looks about my age, walks in to the room from a hall. Dean looks back at her and smiles. He opens his arm out for her. She walks into him. He puts his arm around her.

“Jody and Claire, this is Ellie. She has become a part of the team.”

Jody smiles at Ellie.

“Hello,” was all that Ellie said. She reaches across the table and grabs a burger for herself.

I felt myself get a little angry. Why was this girl allowed to stay here and I wasn’t? What was so special about her? I thought about it for a moment. Dean really looks like he actually likes Ellie. He’s never responded to my presence like that, actually none of them have. I mean, Castiel shows me a little affection.

“How did you come in to meeting?” Jody asks.

“Chuck made a new group of angels.” Sam says. “And he dropped Ellie off here for protection.”

I look back at Ellie. I guess I could see the angel in her, from the way she stands and looks at people. Her eyes were wide, curious, and noticing.

“If she’s an angel, why is she eating?” I ask. I can hear the slight annoyance in my voice from the fact that she gets to stay here.

“I am half-angel and half-human.” Ellie says to me. Her wide-eye gaze focuses on me. They were brown. I wasn’t close enough to see the special details about them. “I share some of the needs that humans have such as sleep and food, but also have the mannerisms of an angel.”

“Oh,” I say. I have to look down towards my burger because her stare was making my stomach flip.

“Let’s sit down,” Sam says while pulling out a chair. “Tell us about your trip down here.”

Jody’s eyes light up and I can already tell what story’s going to be told. It’s going to be about the truck driver.

“You will never guess what this jackass truck driver did.” She starts.

^^^

After swapping a few stories, some of Jody’s cop stories and some of Team Free Will’s victories, Jody retires to her bedroom to sleep off all the driving that she did. The rest of us head to an area with a couch, two chairs, and a TV.

“When did you set this area up?” I ask as I take the chair to the right of TV.

“Around the time Ellie got here, so four months ago.” Sam answers.

She’s been here for four months! How come they never gave us word about her?

I look towards Ellie. She was sitting next to Dean on the couch with a blanket on her. Castiel pops up with a tray that has five cups on it.

“I made hot chocolate.” He says as he sets the tray on the coffee table.

“Thanks, Cas.” Sam says as he grabs his cup.

Everyone silently grabs a cup while Dean presses the play button on the remote to start the movie.

Around twenty minutes into the movie, I let my eyes look around the room. A couple things have changed since I was last here. More pictures were on the walls, some furniture seemed to be missing and some seemed new. I turn my head to observe the other people in the room.

Dean was slouching on the couch with his socked feet propped on the coffee table. His head was resting on Castiel’s shoulder. Castiel had his head on Dean’s; he seemed like he was close to sleep. Ellie was on the other side of the couch, lying down with her head on a pillow. Her eyes were glued to the TV like it was the best thing she’s ever seen. Sam was slouching to the extreme in his chair. It was funny to see him with his head lying completely lazy-like against the back of the chair with his mouth opened.

My eyes travel back to Ellie. I jump a little when I find that she was staring at me. Her gaze seems less intense than before. I find myself holding my breath as the seconds start to pile up. My stomach felt tight, and I felt the need to bite my fingernails. It felt as if she was peering in my soul and looking through every nook and cranny, finding secrets. My cheeks start to feel warm and I have to break the stare.

I look back to the TV and try to remember how to breathe correctly.

^^^^

Out of habit brought from school, I wake up around 7:30 am the next day. I sleepily sit up in the bed. I rub my eyes and look around the room. I was actually seeing the room for the first time since last night when I walked in I didn’t bother to turn the lights on.

The room is pretty simple. The bed was positioned against the wall farthest from the door. A night stand was placed beside the bed, while a dresser was put along the opposite wall. The dresser had a mirror built in to it. I wondered if this stuff had already been in here from the previous Bunker owners, or if Castiel put this stuff in here.

I push the duvet off and swing my legs around to the edge of the bed. My toes barely touch the ground before I recoil my legs quickly. I shiver a little. The floor was insanely cold compared to my self-built warm burrow of blankets. I see my suitcase beside the door. I make a mad dash across the room and hurriedly find socks and put them on.

I exit my room. I stand in the hallway and look down both ways. No one seemed to be up. I decide to make coffee to see if I can wake myself up more.

When I walk in to the kitchen, I’m a bit startled to see a person already standing at the coffee machine. Without looking at their face, I automatically believe it is Ellie standing there since I don’t believe Sam or Dean would walk around with a blanket wrapped around them.

She must have felt my presence in the room because she turns around. She smiles. “Morning,”

My stomach feels warm. “Morning,”

“How do you take your coffee?” She asks taking a mug from the drying rack.

“Uh milk and three spoons full of sugar,” I tell her as I take a seat at the kitchen table.

After getting a mug ready for herself, she turns around and walks to the table. She sits across from me and pushes the mug to me. She peers over her mug at me while she sips from it. I take a sip from my mug.

“Uh,” Ellie has a look of confusion on her face. “How are you today?”

“I’m good.” I say leaning back in my chair. “And you?”

“Oh, I’m fine.” She says smiling a bit. “Did, uh, you dream well?”

“I don’t think I dreamed actually.” I say truthfully. I believe I was too tired to dream last night.

She nods. She looks at her mug for a moment before looking back at me. “Am I doing it right?”

I raise my eyebrows. “Doing what right?”

“Making conversation,”

“Yeah, you’re asking all the right questions. But usually people aren’t as puzzled as you are when speaking.”

“Oh good,” Ellie nods. “It’s just Jody and you are the first people I’ve actually met outside of Dean, Sam, and Castiel.”

“Really?” I ask. “Do they not take you out with them?”

“They do. I just never have the opportunity to speak to anyone.”

“Oh,” I look down at my mug.

I find myself confused for a moment. It was actually super easy to talk to her, unlike the people I’ve met at school. Before I could ask her another question, my stomach growls, Ellie speaks before I can.

“Don’t worry someone will be here momentarily to cook breakfast. I’d do it myself but Dean really likes cooking this meal.” She says.

I nod. “He better hurry up, or I might starve.”

Ellie gives me an alarmed expression than it eases in to a relaxed one. “Oh, you were joking.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her. I nod. “Yeah,”

She giggles. “Then I, too, am about to starve.”

^^^^

“A lot of things have changed since I was here last.” I tell her as we walk into the war room.

“Yes,” Ellie says. She runs her finger along a table. “It’s much cleaner now than when I first got here.”

I laugh. “Yeah, I noticed that.” I stop and turn towards her, putting my hands in my sweat pants pockets. “Who even has time to clean this place?”

“Cas does. He has a lot of time on his hands now.”

“Why does he-“

Ellie holds her hand out to a book shelf and starts walking to it. “Do you like reading? Because ever since I was introduced to the hobby, I have adored it.”

Caught off by her sudden change of subject, my response is delayed. “Uh, yeah, it’s pretty fun. But what do you read around here that’s fun? All I’ve seen are lore books, and such.”

“I keep the good ones on the bottom shelf. They are more plot based rather than facts based.” She says getting on to her knees in front of a bookshelf.

I do the same, and look at the books on display. I recognize a couple titles. It seems that Ellie is in to young adult novels.

“Do you, uh, want to read with me?” Ellie asks.

I look to her. She looks completely confused, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Is that weird to ask?”

“No,” I shake my head and grab a book that seemed interesting. “Yeah, we can sit together and read.”

“Cool,” Ellie grabs a bigger book from the shelf.

We sit at the table. I look to her book.

“So you’re into Harry Potter.” I say.

Ellie smiles as she looks up from the book to me. “Yeah, I like the books. Dean says that there are movies, too. He said we can watch them together after I finish the series.”

“That copy looks pretty old,” I say. “Where did you find that?”

“I was looking through some old boxes and found them. Dean said they belonged to someone special, so I’m trying to take good care of them.”

“That’s cool.”

^^^^

I glance up from my book to Ellie. She was staring down at the book that was placed on the table. Her head was resting on one of her hands while the other was holding the book open. I know that what she’s doing is simple, and millions of people probably sit like that each day, but she made it seem so interesting. It was fascinating to watch her eyes as she read. They showed emotional reactions to each scene in the book. I roll my eyes and look down at my book.

I’ve been trying to read the same damn paragraph for five minutes.

“Ellie,”

We look up and see Dean standing near the table. He had a glass beer bottle in his hand while the other hand was tucked into his front pocket.

“I need ya to go to the store. We’re gettin’ pretty low on food.”

“Okay,” Ellie takes the piece of paper from beside the book and puts it on the page. She shuts the book.

“The keys,” Dean says as he tosses them to her.

“No, no. Don’t throw them.” Ellie says, too late. She covers her face as the keys hit the table and slide. She takes her hands down and stares at him. “You know I’m not good at catching things.”

Dean laughs. “Yeah,” He turns around to leave the room. “Hurry up, little lady!”

Ellie huffs a breath out at him as he leaves. She looks at me and smiles. “Do you wanna go with me to the store?”

My heart starts to thud in my chest. She wanted me to go with her.

“Yeah, let me go get a jacket.”

“I’ll be waiting outside.” She stands up and starts heading to the stairs.

^^^^

“What keys did he throw you?” I ask as I exit the Bunker.

“Castiel’s,” She says as she walks towards the golden car.

I nod. “Of course. He’d never let you drive the Impala.”

Ellie laughs as she gets in. “Yeah, no one except Dean and Sam are good enough to even sit in the driver’s spot.”

I smile and nod.

Ellie starts the car. She backs up and heads towards the main road.

“Wait,” I say.

She glances at me.

“Do you even know how to drive?” I ask getting a bit nervous as she whips on to the road.

“Yeah, Castiel taught me when I first got here.”

“That’s good.” I say. I look over at her. “So have you ever driven the Impala?”

“No.” Ellie says quickly then she smiles. “Actually, yes I have.”

I gasp and turn towards her a little. “Really? Does Dean know?”

Ellie shakes her head, laughing. “Nope. Sam has let me drive a couple times when we are out on a hunt, and he’s too tired.”

“They let you go out on hunts.”

“Yeah,”

“Huh,” I shift back to looking at the road and cross my arms.

Ellie rolls the car to a stop at a red light. She looks over to me and squints her eyes. “Does that bother you?” She asks innocently.

I stare out the passenger side window. I didn’t want to seem like a whiny baby to her, and I didn’t want to complain either. But she gives me this feeling of understanding so I talk.

“Yeah, a little bit.”

The car starts to move.

“Why?”

“I’ve always wanted to go hunting with them, for as long as I can remember. They’ve always told me that I couldn’t.” I laugh bitterly. “They even sent me out to Jody’s thinking that’d get me away from it.”

“They must care about you a lot.” She says.

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” She says. “They seem like their trying to push you away from this harmful life as much as possible. They’re probably just trying to keep you safe.”

“What about you?” I ask her. I look at her. Her face was completely resting, and she seems tired. “They’re not pushing you away. They are gladly taking you in, teaching you how to make salt bullets and teaching you all kinds of lure.”

“I believe they keep me around because I’m the only one that can heal them.” She says quietly.

I open my mouth then close it. That can’t be true. Can it?

“Dean seems so fond of you though.”

“He wasn’t in the beginning. Castiel wasn’t too thrilled about my presence either. He pitched a big fit when Father popped up with me. Sam’s the only one that has showed me nothing but kindness since my coming.” Her voice was so quietly, like if she spoke too loud they’d hear her from here.

I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I put my hand on her shoulder as a sign that I was trying to comfort her. Her shoulders stay tense, but she smiles at me.

^^^^

“Hey Dean,” Ellie says in to her phone. “We traveled all of this way to the store, and we found out you didn’t give us a list of things to buy.”

I can hear Dean laughing over the phone as I look at the seemingly endless supply of cereal.

“Okay, bye. I will.” Ellie ends the call and puts the phone in her jacket pocket. She walks to me. “He said he’ll text me what we need.”

“Okay,”

“In the meantime, is there anything you’d like to get?” She asks me.

I turn around and flinch a bit when I find that she was standing extremely close to me. Our noses couldn’t have been even four inches apart.

“Uh, Ellie, this is a little too close for my comfort.” I tell her.

“My apologies,” She takes a step back and smiles.

“I-it’s alright.” I take a breath in to recover from the sudden closeness. I couldn’t help but think that she smelled like oranges. “If the store has powdered doughnuts, I’d want to get those. Also, some soda.”

“Okay,” Ellie’s phone dings. She reaches in to her pocket and pulls it out to check the text. “Alright, he sent it. Let’s get to this because this list is long.”

^^^^

“You’re back so soon.” The teenage male cashier says to Ellie as she starts putting items on the conveyer belt. I begin to help her.

“It’s been a week, Devin.” She says without emotion. “Also, I live at a house with three men, and those beings tend to eat a lot.”

Devin laughs his nerves out a bit. “Oh yeah, I remember.” He begins to scan a couple items. “I forgot to ask you last time you were here, what school do you go to? I looked around Hamilton High for you.”

“I graduated last year.” Ellie tells him.

Devin nods, and then he looks up towards me. He smiles. “Who’s this?” His voice sounded almost flirty, and I didn’t enjoy it.

Ellie drops the package of cheese on the conveyer belt heavily, causing a loud noise. Devin jumps and looks back at her.

“That’s Claire, and she doesn’t like people.”

Devin’s eyes are wide as he stares in Ellie’s. He almost seems scared of her. Is he seeing something I can’t when he looks in to her eyes?

“Oh sorry,” He says shakingly to me.

I almost want to laugh at how awkward he feels. Ellie watches him scan the rest of the items with her arms crossed.

^^^^

“That Devin-guy is really afraid of you.” I say getting in to the car.

Ellie shrugs. “He should be.” She says contently.

I laugh. “Do you not like him?”

Ellie huffs out a breath. “He is just so…what’s the word?...Annoying! Every time I walk in to that store, he wants to talk to me. Just last week, he had the nerve to ask for my cell phone number. Of course, I declined him the number, but then he acted all angry that I didn’t give it to him, like he had an absolute need for my cell phone number.” Ellie let’s out something that sounds almost like a growl. “He is so infuriating.”

“That’s the most I’ve heard you so say at one time.” I say laughing. “And that’s the first time I’ve seen you close to angry.”

Ellie laughs, too. “I’m usually not like that.” She glances at me. “What about you? Do you have anyone at your school like that?”

I sigh, letting myself slouch in the seat. “Yes everyone,”

Ellie giggles.

“Well particularly this one group of girls. They sometimes bother me. It used to be really bad, to the point I got detention for punching one of the girls.”

“Castiel told me about that.”

I look to her. “He talks about me.”

Ellie nods. “Yes, all the time. He’s very proud that you have decided to finish high school.”

My body gets warm at the thought of Castiel actually being proud of me. I smile and wrap my arms around myself.

“How old is your vessel?” I ask her.

“19,” Ellie tells me. “She graduated last year from high school.”

I nod. “Did she want you to take her body as a vessel?”

Ellie nods. “Margret was very sick. She prayed for a way to be better, and Father gave that to her. She has a very lovely heaven. It’s full of sunny days, ice cream, and all of her favorite TV shows.”

I smile. “That’s good then.”

“When do you graduate?”

“In five months,” I sigh. “It’s not soon enough in my opinion.”

“You can make it.”

^^^^

“Great! You’re finally back. I thought I was going to die from starvation.” Dean exclaims as we walk in the Bunker.

“That’s awesome.” Ellie says as she struggles with the bags she was carrying.

“You know what would be even more awesome?” I ask her clearly struggling, too.

“If Dean would help us,” She says.

“Exactly what I was thinking,”

“Okay, okay.” Dean says as he walks the stairs. He takes a few bags from each of us. “No need to get all sassy.”

We walk into the kitchen where Sam, Jody, and Castiel were already sitting. Sam stands up to help put away the groceries.

“Were you nice to my car?” Castiel asks as he holds his hand out for the keys.

Ellie drops them in his hand. “I crashed it.”

Castiel looks as if his stomach had fallen out of his body. Dean looks back with the same expression on his face.

“What?”

Ellie and I start laughing.

“I told you his face would like that.” She says.

Castiel realizing she was joking lets a breath out in relief. He shakes his head. “I don’t understand why I believe you when you say that.”

“It’s because you’re a cute gullible bumble bee, sweetie.” Dean says as he plants a kiss on top of Castiel’s head.

Castiel’s cheeks turn pink. “I’m not gullible.”

^^^^

Thanks for reading!