The Year of Redemption

Chapter 10: Distance

Dean pulled up to the curb and hopped out of the car to grab a newspaper from a stand on the sidewalk. Castiel also climbed out of the Impala and joined him.

"Well, we're in the right place," Dean commented, pointing to a headline that read 'Seventh Suicide in Four Days. New Record for Our Beloved City?' Cas nodded. "We need to find their electricity company's HQ," Dean said.

"HQ?" Cas asked, confused.

"Head-quarters," Dean clarified. "The Bridge. The Captain's Chair. The place where they run all their operations."

"Right. I knew that," Castiel replied awkwardly.

Dean found a McDonalds with free Wi-Fi. He sat at a table and called up a map of the town on Sammy's laptop.

"How does this attract children?" Cas asked as he poked a statue of Ronald McDonald that was standing in the corner. Dean looked up and rolled his eyes, then went back to work.

Castiel imitated the statue, raising his right hand in a wave and placing his left hand on his hip. His mouth curled into a broad smile, and he tilted his head slightly to his right. "There," he exclaimed proudly. "Are you attracted to me?" he asked.

Dean looked up again and scoffed, stifling a laugh. "Yes, I'm extremely turned on," he joked. "Now cut it out, we need to go." He shut the laptop and stood to leave. Cas waved to the Ronald McDonald statue, then straightened his trench coat and necktie and followed Dean.

"Some people have maturity levels that match their age," Dean said over his shoulder as they left the building.

"Angels have no such thing as maturity," Cas replied.

"Obviously," Dean sneered. "Get in, we've got some bars to check on."

They pulled up to the Springfield Utility Board, and Dean handed Cas a badge. "Here. You're Mike Hudson, Illinois state utilities inspector."

Cas took the badge and put it in his inside coat pocket. They both walked up to the building, and Dean greeted the receptionist at the counter. It was just before closing time. "Evening, miss. I'm state utilities inspector Jim Marshal," he said, showing his badge.

Dean paused. He nudged Castiel, who let out a soft "Oh," then pulled a badge out of his pocket and revealed his own ID. "Mike, um, Hudson..." he said.

"He's our inspector-in-training," Dean winked. "We're here to check out the power outages at several bars across town. We believe we can fix the problem. If you don't mind showing us to your main operations console?"

"You couldn't have come earlier? It's near closing time," the receptionist replied flippantly.

"We'll only take a minute," Dean grinned again.

"Well alright, but I'm not getting paid overtime, so this joint closes at 5 o'clock sharp." She led them back into a room with a long console, and Dean asked the operator there to call up a map of the bars that have experienced outages in the last week.

"Get us a printout of that, and we'll be on our way," Dean told the operator, who was also itching to book it home.

The operator complied, then asked, "But how are you going to fix it?"

"That's for us to know and you to find out," Dean replied frivolously.

"What he means is, you need not worry about the outages any longer. We shall put a halt to them swiftly," Cas clarified.

The operator looked at them both dubiously. "If you say so..." he seemed torn between saluting them as superiors or questioning their mental stability. He decided to remain silent and simply wave as they exited the way they had come.