Secrets and Camera Flashes

Chapter 56

At some point during dinner, a conversation about Wayward Sisters ensues because apparently spending all morning talking about it wasn't enough. Castiel can't complain, though. He has a lot of theories for the end of the season. The fact that Lucifer does make it out of the Cage changes everything, and he hasn't been given all the scripts or even a vague summary of how things are going to end.

"Do you think Kathryn ever becomes his vessel?" Dean asks. "Because I would pay good money for Claire to play Satan."

"God, I hope not," Charlie says. "Then what would Cas do?"

"Leave, I guess," Castiel says. "I mean, I was just hoping my name would help the show out, so if Claire wants to take on my role, I'd be fine with that."

"So you don't know?" Dean asks. "You don't know the fate of your own character?"

Castiel shakes his head. "I just have the first couple scripts, remember? All I know is that Lucifer is hilarious and that he seems to be playing up this whole 'nice guy' thing to win Kathryn's trust."

"I would've thought that would be Michael's move to get Yadira to say yes," Dean says. The author can't find a subtle way to work it into the dialogue, but Yadira is the actress that plays Kaia so in the fic, Yadira is played by Kaia because why not make things needlessly complicated? Basically, Claire's character is Lucifer's true vessel and Kaia's character is Michael's true vessel. "What's his plan, then?"

Castiel shrugs. "He's not in any of the episodes I've read yet. I bet he's gonna play by the same script, though. Everyone knows the girls are good people, Heaven and Hell included. They're going to try to use that to their advantage."

"I kinda hope it works," Dean says. "I wanna see the big archangel fight."

Castiel scoffs. "You want everyone to die?"

"Damn right," Dean says. "Come on, you gotta admit, that would be pretty cool."

"No, that would be horrible!" Castiel says. "I can't believe you'd even say that!"

"Can I ask what you guys are talking about?" Jo asks. "This is a really weird conversation out of context."

"Wayward Sisters," Charlie says. "Only the best show to ever exist."

Jo looks up at Castiel. "Oh, that's the show you're gonna be joining soon, right?"

Castiel nods. "Yep."

"I'm sorry," Dean says indignantly, "how did she find out that you're going to be on Wayward Sisters before I did? I'm the super-fan!"

"And she's my fake girlfriend," Castiel reminds him. "Just because we're both moving on to other things doesn't mean the PR for the movie stops, so our publicists were working out how we could get pictures together when I'm filming in Vancouver and she's starting a new movie in a couple months in LA."

Dean pouts. "I still think I should have gotten to know first."

Castiel shrugs. "Sorry."

"I'm kinda thinking of watching it," Jo says. "It sounds really interesting."

Dean scoffs. "When I told you about it, you laughed at me and said it sounded stupid!"

Once again, Castiel can't see Jo's face when she looks at Dean, but he can tell the look she's sending him isn't nice. When she looks back at Castiel, though, there's a smile on her face. "Well, listening to you guys talk about it changed my mind. If all three of you like it that much, it has to be good!"

"I wouldn't say it's good by any stretch of the imagination," Castiel says, "but it can be fun to watch."

"It does kinda suck," Charlie agrees. "You know, objectively speaking. You should totally watch it, though."

Jo cocks an eyebrow. "I'm getting really mixed messages right now."

"You gotta watch it to understand," Dean says. "No one hates Wayward Sisters more than the people who love Wayward Sisters."

Castiel, who is very active in the fandom from his secret tumblr account, can confirm that. Wayward Sisters fans love to trash the show, but if anyone who doesn't watch the show trashes it, they deserve to rot in the deepest depths of hell. That's just how it is.

"I am so confused," Jo says.

"You gotta watch it," Charlie tells her. Her eyes light up. "Wait, what if you wait until after Cas announces that he's going to be in it, and you can host, like, a live watch-athon of the first few episodes on twitter? You can both live-tweet it and interact with people who are live-tweeting it with you and all that and maybe you'll get more people hooked!"

"Charlie, you're a genius!" Dean tells her. "I know I can't join the Wayward party because we've got some fake beef, but I'll make a passive-aggressive comment or two to draw attention to it."

"This is gonna be great!" Jo says, beaming. "Right, Cas?"

Castiel forces a smile. "Yep, it'll be fun!" He obviously doesn't believe it, though. He's not sure why, but he really liked Wayward Sisters just being something he shared with Charlie and Dean. He can't say no to a chance to win over new fans, though. If this is what it takes to save the show, he'll go along with it.

"Oh, hey, maybe you can get the girls from the show involved, too," Dean says. "Make it a whole big thing."

"Yeah, I'll ask," Castiel says. "I'm sure at least one of them will go for it. They seem to want their show saved as much as we do."

"Almost," Charlie says. "Almost as much as we do. We still want it more."

Castiel chuckles. "Alright, they seem to want their show saved almost as much as we do."

"This is gonna be so much fun," Jo says with a grin. "I can't wait! We can watch it together and everything!"

"Yep," Castiel says with his very fake but hopefully realistic smile. He wracks his brain for a way to make this sound less romantic (not that watching dumb-but-addicting shows is romantic, but he has a feeling she's thinking of it as quality time together). "If you want, we can watch it in the apartment I rented near set, and Dean and Charlie can text us their thoughts because they obviously can't tweet it."

"Group chat time!" Charlie says.

Once again, Jo looks disappointed, but she still agrees. Dean pats her leg reassuringly, and Castiel feels a pang of guilt. He can't imagine how Jo feels thinking Castiel is just oblivious, but it has to be weirder in Dean's position. It hasn't occurred to Castiel when he came out that he was putting Dean in an awkward place. It can't be easy balancing the role of Castiel's confidant and Jo's wingman.

Castiel fights back a sigh. This PR relationship is going to be the death of him.