Come in With the Rain

It's a dark cold night. The sounds of cars passing on the street are as loud as the people on the sidewalk. Sad, lonely eyes look up from hiding in the alleyway at the people passing. Warm huffs of breath are used to warm petite pale hands. The hands look weak.

“Are you okay?”

Shy eyes look up to a man holding an umbrella overhead. The man looks sincere, worried and some what confused as he becomes soaked with the rain. A small head bobs up and down in a slow nod. Pity will not be taken tonight.

“Can I ask you your name then?” The man continues to ask. His voice is low and rough almost in a rasp.

“It's Mabel,” A gentle weak voice answers.

The man kneels down looking at her face, blue eyes meeting bluish-gray ones, “Mabel, would you like to get out of the rain?”

Mabel almost nods eagerly. She gets up grabbing a green worn out duffel sack as she stands. The man generously takes the sack from her hands and has her walk under the umbrella with him.

“My name is Castiel Tippins,” He greets.

Castiel takes Mabel to a nearby family diner. There aren't many people at the diner seeing as it almost 11 at night. But the few that are there stared at Castiel and Mabel for a while before actually minding there own business. Castiel ordered himself a cup of coffee since he had already eaten. Mabel on the other hand could honestly go for anything. So she went for the house burger and fries.

Once her food had arrived, the look of happiness and excitement washed over her face. She didn't really know where to start. She tasted the fries and immediately melted. Then she took a bite out of the burger and just started to devour it. Almost like she wanted to fill her belly just in case she wouldn't be able to do it later.

Castiel frowned when started to catch subtle hints of Mabel shoving food into her pockets.

“You don't have to do that,” He announces startling the girl. Mabel pulls her hands away from the plate and puts them on her lap without looking up at him. He sighs seeing her react in such a way.

“I'm sorry.”

“It's fine. You can eat what you want,” He tells her. Mabel looks up then keeps eating. “Where are your parents?”

“Don't have any.”

“Foster family?”

“Had a few but didn't like them.”

“A home?”

Mabel shakes her head. Castiel frowns at her. Has she always been alone? Who took care of her?

“Did anyone take care of you?” He asks.

“Well there was Damien, but these men in bulky blue jackets took him away and I haven't heard from him since. Then there was Jeremy but he's been on vacation for a while now. Martha lives around the corner but she doesn't let me sleep over at night,” Mabel mentions as she sips the milkshake the waitress brought over to her as a kind gesture.

Castiel swallows hard thinking really hard and feeling nervous about his next question.

“How old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

He sucks in a breath and runs a hand over his mouth while looking away. Fifteen. A fifteen year old is living out on the streets by herself being raised by whoever finds her and decides to take pity on her. She's so innocent. Who knows what she could have gotten herself into.

After the meal, Mabel looked satisfied and pleased. Castiel received the check and paid for everything.

“Thank you for buying me dinner mister,” Mabel says. He smiles and tells her it was nothing. He watched her reach out for her sack but stops her.

“I don't live to far away and I have a spare room,” He says gently. “If you'd like you can stay there for the night.”

Mabel looks at the man unsure. Like there was a catch to his offer. She gazes over to her sack then to the streets outside. He did just buy her dinner and is now offering someplace warm for her. She couldn't really read him with that serious looking face he was holding.

Mabel asks, “Are you sure?”

Castiel nods. He really didn't want to see something bad happen to a sweet and innocent looking girl. He picks up her sack and tells her to follow him. Mabel couldn't really be rude to him now that he was insistent about her using his spare room.

The walk really wasn't that far. Mabel swallowed hard seeing how nice the building looked. And when she made it inside the felt like she would get kicked out for looking homeless. Even though she was. The gleaming doors of the elevators opened and they went inside. Castiel pushes one of the buttons close to the top. Mabel almost panicked when she felt the elevator ascend upwards. They were going pretty high up.

“You live in a very fancy place mister,” Mabel compliments.

“Call me Castiel,” He tells her with a small smile. “And thank you.”

The doors ding open and they step out into a wide hallway with doors. Each door had a number on it. As they walked out of their elevator, the elevator next to theirs dinged open. Mabel saw a very tall man with medium length dark brown hair. He looked very built and probably could easily crush her if he dared to hug her. He wore a suit and carried a leather briefcase in his hand. Behind him a boy no older than her walked out. He looked built as well but he looked like he could easily bruise her if he wanted to tackle her. His hair was a brownish blonde and fixed to spike up. He wore a leather jacket, blue over shirt over a black t-shirt, and denim jeans with holes at the knees with boots on his feet. Both of them looked a little wet from the rain outside.

“Oh, hi Cas,” The taller man greeted with a wave. “Who's your friend?”

“Hello Sam,” Castiel greeted. Mabel looked between the two. She suspected they were neighbors. “This is Mabel.”

The man named Sam extends a hand to her, “Hi Mabel. I'm Sam Winchester and this is my little brother Dean.” Mabel shakes Sam's hand and looks over to Dean, who smiles at her and waves. Mabel takes her hand back and goes back to Castiel's side.

The brother's follow Castiel and Mabel towards the direction of their apartments. As Castiel and Sam talk like adults, Dean talks to Mabel.

“How do you know Cas?” Dean asks kindly.

“He found me on the street,” Mabel says bluntly. Dean blinks a bit at her.

He questions,” You..you're not a hooker or something?”

“What's a hooker?” Mabel asks. Dean's jaw dropped. “I mean I've heard the term before but I've never asked about it. My friend Martha gets called a hooker by her guy friends a lot and she smiles. Is it a compliment?”
Dean doubles over in laughter. He couldn't believe this girl seriously just asked him that. He was so tempted to lie and say yes to her and have find out the harsh way but he was too much of a gentleman to do that. After all his mom did raise him right when it came to women.

“No, it isn't a compliment. It's actually very bad,” Dean tells her calming down from his fit of laughs. “And those guy friends your friend Martha brings over are just using her.”

Mabel frowns, “How can you say that? Those men are actually very nice. They give Martha money as a gift.”

Dean rubs his hand across his face trying to keep his cool with this girl. Seriously she lived on the streets. How does she not know of these things?

“I mean I've seen my other friend Damien do the same thing,” She mumbles.

Dean looks at her, “Do you know what a prostitute is?” Mabel nods. “That's what a hooker is.” Mabel gasps. “Yeah, your friend Martha is a hooker. And those men giving her money are her clients.”

“Ewww,” Mabel moans feeling dirty now. “And I slept on her mattress in the mornings.” Dean snorts feeling gross.

They reach their apartments. Sam and Dean live in the apartment just to the left of Castiel's. Sam and Dean say goodnight to the pair and walk into their home. Castiel opens the door to his.

Mabel gasps seeing the huge space that Castiel had in his apartment. There was a glorious view from the living room. A beautiful kitchen near the front door. Then there was the study with a wall to wall collection of books.

“Let me show you the spare room,” Castiel suggests as he carries her sack to the room. Mabel follows and continues to look around like some kind of tourist. When she see's the room, she smiles seeing the huge bed sitting in the middle of the room. She goes over to it and flops down bouncing lightly from the springs. Castiel puts her sack down by her bed and goes through a door which led into a tiled bathroom. He digs around under the sink and pulls out an unused toothbrush. “Here's the bathroom if you need to use it.” Mabel takes the toothbrush from him and watches him go to the door of the room.

Suddenly it hit her. His kindness and charity.

“Why are you doing this?”Mabel asks him.

Castiel looks at her, “It isn't out of pity if that's what you are implying. Well I do feel awful that you are so alone and have to take care of yourself. And that you need to seek comfort in bad people. I'm doing this because I want you to have a roof over your head instead of sitting in an alleyway in the cold.”

Mabel could feel the sentiment in his voice. No one ever took the chance to help her let alone take a second glance at her. They only saw her as the homeless girl that needed to be pitied. People would toss her coins, a few bills and maybe throw away a half-eaten sandwich just so she'd have something in her stomach for the day.

She rolled the toothbrush between her palms, “Thank you so much for tonight Castiel.”

“You are welcome Mabel,” Castiel says with a slight bow of his head. “Good night.” He walked out of the room leaving Mabel in there. For it to be a room with four walls, it felt so large for her.

Mabel dug around in her sack for something decent enough to wear to bed. There was a blue t-shirt that belonged to a boy, she thinks, that she stole from someone hanging laundry outside and a pair of worn out faded sweatpants that had a lot of green stains on them. She smelled them to make sure they were okay to sleep in. The pants smelled like a lake but not too much of a lake that it was like her pants were made of fish.

She switched out of her previous clothes into these and went to the tiled bathroom to brush her teeth. There was a shower and a toilet she could use without asking permission or sneaking into. She saw the array of shampoos and soaps sitting on a shelf of the shower. Castiel sure had it nice if he could live in an apartment like this.

After brushing her teeth, Mabel was all to happy to climb into the huge bed meant for her for the night. The sheets were soft and silky and the mattress molded her body making it the most comfortable thing she's every laid in. There was a light switch by the headboard and she flicked it and the room went dark. Sighing in content she closed her eyes and drifted off.

The following morning, Mabel felt the sheets wrapping around her. For a moment she thought she was dreaming but the events of last night flashed through her. She climbed out of the bed that wasn't hers and grabbed the clothes she had tossed on the floor from the night before and shoved it in her sack. She saw the time on a clock on the close by clock. 6 AM. Maybe Castiel wasn't awake. Mabel opened the door to her room quietly and looked out. No sign of him. Opening the door all the way she walked out quietly. Her bare feet padding across the wooden flooring to the front door.

“Mabel?”