From The Mind Of Jemma Winchester

Uncle Cas

tfw you forget it's the 24th even though you've been writing it all day at school. Anyway, this chapter is told in omniscient POV which I'm not even sure I can do but Imma do it anyway. It's also a flashback. This chapter is also really short.

TW: mention of car crash

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November 5, 2008
Harrisburg, PA

Sam and Dean sat on the old motel beds, brows furrowed in concentration. One by one, a person from the Frank family were being found dead in the most unusual ways. The mother, found hung upside down in a barn--100 miles away. The father, found with his hands cut off and his eyes carved out. But the coroner's report stated that the hands were cut off before the eyes were carved out. The eleven-year-old daughter found in a ditch in the family car. She didn't know how to drive. What was even stranger was that the victims' flesh was eaten off. "So, if the ghouls are dead set on eating this family, that means..."

"They're going after the little boy next," Dean finished.

"We've got to go," Sam said and headed for the door.

"Wait! We can't leave Jemma alone," Dean said. "... Castiel! We need you!"

Castiel appeared in front of the brothers. "What do you want?" He asked, annoyed.

"Watch her. Take care of her until we get back," Dean demanded and slammed the door behind him.

Cas turned and stared at the little girl seated at the table, who stared right back at him. "Hi," Jemma said finally.

"Hello," Castiel replied. "Your name is... Jemma, correct?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Do you like to read?" She held up the book that was on the table in front of her.

"I don't know. I've never read for pleasure before," he said and sat at the table across from her.

"Do you know how to read?"

Castiel tilted his chin upward. "Of course I do. I'm an Angel of The Lord."

Jemma slid the book toward Castiel. "Try it. You might like it."

"I don't have time to read for pleasure. I have more important things to do."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" She pleaded. "You don't have to do anything right now."

"Alright. I'll read it later." Cas pocketed the book in his trench coat, but Jemma stopped him.

"Hey! I'm reading that book. I think you'll like the other book I brought better." She climbed off her chair and rifled through her backpack, producing a book. "Here." She handed it to Castiel.

" 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief'," Cas read aloud. "This is highly unrealistic and immature. None of this ever happened. There is no... Camp Half-Blood or demigods."

"Castiel, that's the point of fiction!" Jemma exclaimed dramatically. "It's not supposed to be real. It's supposed to tell a story!"

"Like prophecies?"

Jemma sighed and stared at the angel, accompanied by a long silence. "... I don't know what that means," she said finally.

Castiel glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand next to one of the beds. It read 11:53. "Thank you for the book, Jemma. I hope to read it soon."

"You're welcome, Uncle Cas," she replied.

"I'm not your uncle," Cas shot back.

The young girl huffed. "It was just somethin' I called you."

"Why do you like to read?" Castiel asked, now fascinated with the child's affinity for words on a page.

She hopped off the chair and began pacing. "I dunno," Jemma said and shrugged. Then she stopped, her face scrunched in concentration. "There's a lotta different books that tell a lotta different stories, and the stories are really cool. Sometimes they're happy and sometimes they're sad." Jemma paused and yawned. She sat in the middle of the floor. "And--and some books are long and some books are short and some people like certain types of books that tell certain types of stories. I like fiction," she said sleepily. She lay down on the hardwood floor of the motel. "I like to read... 'cause... you can go on adventures... and learn stuff from... books..." Jemma's eyes fluttered shut and she drifted off to sleep.

Castiel pondered the girl's words for a moment, not noticing she was fast asleep. "That's rather... profound." He turned toward Jemma, who was curled up in a little ball on the floor. Cas loomed over her, noticing how small she was for a seven-year-old, then scooped her up in his arms. She nuzzled into his chest, which made him slightly uncomfortable. He'd never held another human before, and he didn't know how he felt about it. Castiel decided to allow it, just for right now.

The motel room door swung open. Sam and Dean lumbered into the room, clearly exhausted. Dean gave Castiel a strange look when he saw that Cas was holding Jemma in his arms. "Your daughter is very kind, and intelligent," Cas spoke. "Appreciate her." Cas held out his arms, and Dean took Jemma from them. Then, he disappeared.

"That was weird," Dean muttered.

"Yeah," agreed Sam.

In Dean's arms, Jemma stirred, awakening. "Daddy," she murmured and rubbed her eyes, "where's Uncle Cas?"

"He had to leave, Jemma," he told his daughter.

"Okay," she mumbled and closed her eyes again. Dean placed her in a bed, and she pulled the sheets up to her chin.

"I think Castiel likes Jemma better than you," Sam remarked.

"What makes you say that?"

"He said she was kind and intelligent."

"Yeah, well... whatever."