oh father where art thou

part 1.

The vintage impala pulled up to the long dirt driveway, crunching autumn leaves beneath it. At the end of it a small unstately brick house perched on a slight hill. It looked like it had been through many harsh winters, old tiles in lazy piles heaped the yard, an ancient tire swing dangled on a single lonely strand of a once sturdy rope. weedy grass half hid the slumped, falling apart building. Cass smiled grimly yet warmly as a young girl waved from the small upstairs window of the house.
Cass stared at the rear view mirror probably contemplating how pissed dean would be when he found out his baby impala was gone and a reasonable excuse for his absence. Cass still had rugged boyishly handsome features despite appearing to be in his 30s and blue Observant only slightly world weary
slanted eyes with tousled black hair and a sharply accented jawline. Cass or castiel (the archangel) also wore his typical tan trench coat with a white dress shirt and tie. Just then a screen door swung open with an alarmingly annoying squeak. Cass cranked down the passenger window as a woman approached from a porch glider, a puppy yipping at her heels. The woman looked to be in her 40s, her hair was prematurely gray and in a loose pony she had large gray eyes and a worn thin face.
She put her large hands on the door or the car and leaned towards cass. "Can I help you, stranger?" Cass put his hands up comically but he gulped internally. "Hehheh you caught me, not trying to bother you ma'am just low on gas...I got lost and I'm not sure where the town is around…"
The woman's voice softened slightly and she laughed roughly. "That happens more often then you might think around here… I'm Jesse Jackson by the way."
Cass let out a little breath, humans can be strangely intimidating sometimes even for him. "Right, I'm castiel." Jesse raised a thin eyebrow, "castiel? Like the angel? That's something…"
Cass shrugged off handedly, "most people go with Cass."
Jesse nodded, with a little smile. "sure-i can offer you a cold beer before I show you the way to town I bought a full 12 pack like I was expecting guests or something."
Cass smiled at the gesture, "Lucky me I guess, thankyou."
The inside of the house was cramped and scattered with empty boxes of all sorts of things as well as an assortment of dusty furniture. A tiny kitchen appeared from amidst the darkness and a little overhead fan protested above cass. He tapped the dangling string that turned it on and it stopped squeaking. "Do you have a daughter?" Jesse emerged from squatting in front of the fridge pulling two beers from their plastic encasing.
"Yeah why?" She said a little defensively.
"I saw her earlier." Cass explained simply, shifting his feet.
Jesse cracked open her beer absently, "She's grounded right now she should be in her room."
Cass nodded and looked around at the shady environment, "You support her all by yourself I assume?"
Jesse eyed him and bit her lip visibly in a vain attempt to hide the clouded feelings of pain in her eyes. "Curious guy huh? yes I do."
Cass took a sip from his beer and his eyes met hers sympathetically. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked." Jesse avoided his evasive stare and nodded towards the door, "You better get going then, I'll grab a pen and write down the directions."
Cass didn't say anything but his gaze trailed to the winding stairs that led upstairs and he felt his heart twist.

It was midnight, pitch black. The moon hung low in the open fields. The impala once again drove up to the driveway but this time it backed up hesitantly so the tail end of the car was half way in the main road, ready for a quick getaway.
Cass stepped out, sliding the door quickly shut so the noise almost blended in with the sounds of the night. He was nervous but still had a calm reserve about him and his eyes flitted to the bedroom window which wasn't very highly placed- conveniently a step ladder was nearby leading up the top of the house near a patch of especially shingle-less roof.
Cass approached the shuttered window and found it easy to force it up with a grunt.
His eyes met a little girl her hazel eyes peering down at him from the very edge of the window, her eyes wide but surprisingly she didn't appear to be too frightened,yet. "Who are you?" she demanded. Cass took one more step up the ladder, his voice was pleading and gentle. "I promise not to harm you, I'll explain if you help me up."
The girl backed away in confusion and she blinked rapidly as if to wake herself up from a dream. "Who are you? I'll tell my mom!" Her voice raised to a whining tone. Cass looked around in exasperation and then brought a finger to his mouth and made a soft shushing sound. "You remember, you saw me earlier today right? I'm a friend of your mother-from highschool."
The girl frowned but cass put on a big friendly inviting smile in some desperation.
Cass stumbled into the room finally with permission. The little girl looked like she was around 13 and she had deep red hair and an intelligent face scrambled with freckles, a bad haircut matched with overgrown bangs that stretched into her bright fiery green eyes.
She shook cass's hand firmly in her little hand. "My name is danni what's your name, dude?"
"Hello Danni, I'm castiel."
Danni sat down on the messy covers of her bed hard. Her face lit up unexpectedly.
"That's a beautiful name! I used to pray to him sometimes when I was little, I asked him to bring dad back. God never answered me but castiel would talk to me sometimes."
Castiel cast a genuine smile towards her, and his eyes grew unusually soft. He knelt on one knee next danni, the moon reflected on his figure throwing exaggerated shadows across the opposite wall of her room and accented his sharp features.
"I'm an angel danni, I'm the one who you used to pray to, Castiel the arch-angel." Danni sat further back on her bed wordless. Large black wings erupted from castiel as further proof, expanding the full length of the room with thick feathers. His smooth charismatic face appeared to glow in the white light. "Do you believe me."
Danni was visibly shaking and she started to say something but couldn’t seem to form the sentence. "I-I..."
Cass's wings retreated behind him and he wrinkled his brow in concern. "I'm sorry if I've scared you." Danni shook her head and continued staring. "You seemed vaguely familiar when I saw you and I heard you but I never thought I just…"
Cass got back to his feet with an almost sheepish look at his face. "You can just call me cass."
Danni rubbed her temples with one hand and looked at cass guardedly. "Why-why are you here,cass?"
Cass looked at danni and past her like he was deep in thought. "Other Angel's told me…" He started distantly, his voice suddenly broke and he started over. "Nevermind that doesn’t matter...this all must seem so confusing to you...it's better to just show you." He approached danni and she flinched as his hands touched the top of her head. "You don't have to be alarmed," He promised calmly.