Don't Tell Sammy

Chapter 9: Experimenting

Dean settled himself against his pillow, on his back, a hand behind his head. He closed his eyes, set for sleep. This bed was more comfortable the second time around, and was more comfortable than he had initially assumed it would be. He wondered if Cas's bed was comfortable and he hoped it was. He hoped it was comfortable enough for Cas to sit in, curled up in his blanket, reading late into the night if he wanted to, on nights where it wasn't past midnight when he went to bed.

He really was worried about tomorrow, though. What they'd do. He assumed Cas would be busy some of the morning whether it was before Dean was awake or after, so that was good for him and Dean was thankful it wouldn't inconvenience him at all; he didn't mind spending a while in his sleeping attire after waking up if he didn't have anything big to do that day. He was glad that the mornings and nights didn't seem to be hard, so far, although they'd only been through one morning and two nights.

Maybe tomorrow he'd do some laundry. He had a few things that needed washing. Socks and underwear and clothes he'd worn two or three times now. And bringing up salt and a few weapons for just in case, that was another thing. They still had one free under-worktop cupboard. And ... he could bring up some of his tapes, from the car, to listen to music. Of course, they didn't have a stereo, and a lot of those these days didn't come with slots for tapes ...

Aha. He had an iPod, though. He used it back at the bunker to listen through music through headphones in his room, or to block out noises in motels. It had all of his favorite playlists from his tapes. Maybe he could look for one of those speaker things that could connect to it and play the music, so he could listen to it without having to carry around a thing in his pocket with headphones that, when too loud, stopped him from being able to hear things in the background, like if Cas talked to him or something while he was listening.

So now he had an excuse to go out. Cas could come if he wanted to, but if not, that was cool. Dean could bring him back some subway for lunch if he didn't come, or they could go to subway if he did. Dean had spotted a subway when out today.

Good, this was good. He was figuring out things to do now that he knew Cas was down for whatever. He was becoming less worried about a dull day of nothingness.

But there was always the day after.

And the day after that.

And even the day after that.

The ghost took month long breaks between appearances. Dean had accepted that when they'd come, prepared to be here for that length ... but maybe he should do some more research, go back on those websites and dig a little deeper. He'd do it tomorrow, when Cas was done with his laptop. There was no rush – not until he ran out of things to do. It's not like the ghost was going to show up tonight or tomorrow.

Everything was going to be fine. It's not like he was trying to get away from being here with Cas, he liked that part, it was just the occupying his time that was so–

Bang bang bang.

Dean sat up straight in bed, looking towards the door. He jumped to his feet automatically when he heard a similarly violent banging a little farther away. It was definitely somewhere outside the door, seemingly moving down the hall.

'Dean?'

Dean turned, seeing Cas had emerged behind him.

'It was out there,' Dean explained, knowing that Cas was questioning.

'Should we ...?'

'Probably,' Dean nodded, heading over to the light switch to switch it on. He looked back at Cas worriedly, then remembered the sofa bed. 'If anyone sees and asks, we were both sleeping in that.'