Come in With the Rain

Next morning, Mabel showers and puts on a green t-shirt that is too small and shows her stomach. She puts on blue plaid pajama pants and walks out. Castiel was dressed fully in his work suit cooking breakfast.

“Morning,” Mabel greets sitting at the kitchen island.

“Morning,” Castiel says. He turns the stove off and puts Mabel's breakfast in front of her. “I'm sorry, but I have to head to the office early today. Will you be fine on your own?”

Mabel nods as she follows Castiel with her head. He grabs his over coat goes over to her and plants a kiss atop her head before bolting out the door. He stops for a moment to register what he just did. He shrugs it off and heads towards the elevators.

Mabel touches the spot where Castiel kissed her and blushes.

Sam fixes his suit as he walks around his house looking for anything he may need for work. He made sure that Ellen downstairs would keep an eye out for Dean while he was at work.

“Come on Dean!” Sam calls as he picks up his briefcase. Dean walks out with his backpack on looking irritated about Sam's incessant orders. Sam opens the door and they walk out towards the elevators.

Dean sighs, “Do I have to take my homework with me? I finished it last night.”

Sam nods, “Yes. You need to study. Don't you have that biology test Tuesday?”

“Yeah,” Dean replies. “On Tuesday. Which is like, two days away.”

The doors open and they walk in. Sam states, “Doesn't hurt to be prepared you know.” Dean scoffs as the elevator goes down.

Mabel walks around Castiel's apartment looking at things. Pictures of family, magazines that he has sitting in drawers, and DVD's he owns. She then moves to Castiel's bedroom. She felt a little hesitant at first. Almost like she was invading his privacy. As long as she doesn't go through anything important she wouldn't be.

Castiel's bedroom was very neat. Everything organized to the point that not a single thing was out of place. Feeling a little more adventurous than she should, Mabel goes to his closet. On one side his suits hang nicely, each organized in a certain color pattern and on the other side are jeans and casual shirts one would wear when just lounging. On the back of the door is a motorized tie rack. Mabel looks at her pants then up at Castiel's pants. She's stolen pants before, but this time she can actually return something with the intention that she had borrowed them in the first place. She selects a pair that she believes would fit and switches them with her plaid pajama pants. They were a bit big on her but not enough to slip past her hips and they were long enough to bag over and cover her feet completely. Mabel leaves her pants on the empty hanger to remind Castiel that she borrowed his pants.

She leaves his room and thinks about watching TV. Pulling a face and remembering Sam replacing the spare key atop the door frame from yesterday, she decides to take a little stroll around. Mabel turns the lights off and walks out the door. Standing on her tippy toes, she fetches the key and locks the door.

Shoving the key into the front of her jeans, Mabel heads to the elevator. The scuff of the jeans dragging along the carpeted hallway. She waits patiently for the doors to ding. The doors slide open and she hops in. Now where to start? The lobby. There are bound to be interesting things down there.

Ellen is a barista slash restaurant owner. She runs a bar called The Roadhouse in the lobby of the apartment building she also lives in. Her daughter Jo helps run the restaurant along with a mullet wearing man in his late twenties named Ash. She became good friends with the Winchester brothers when they first moved into the apartment building. Dean, at the age of 13, being the sweet flirty one caught the attention of young Jo, only about the age of 18. Dean really liked Ellen's cooking and that was probably how he warmed himself up to her.

Dean sat at the bar reading his English book with a look of complete boredom. He really needed a distraction right now. Looking over his shoulder to see Jo, age 21, wipe down and clearing a table. He smirks to himself. Hopefully a good distraction. He spins himself around to say something but then he notices something. More like someone.

Mabel made it to the lobby. And it looked just as beautiful as it did when she first arrived the other night. She looked at the ceiling that had a single glass chandelier hanging from it. There is a receptionist desk set up off to her right. And to her left a restaurant. She would go in, but she didn't really have money to buy food.

“Mabel?”

She looks over and see's Dean standing in the entrance of the restaurant. She waves to him as he motions for her to come in. She walks across the tiled floor, her bare feet quietly echoing in the lobby.

Dean watches Mabel move towards him. Her hair a slight mess, her green t-shirt revealing her stomach, and the jeans she wore too big for her hips. He could easily see how skinny she truly was. He frowned seeing how thin her belly looked.

“Hi Dean,” She smiles.

“Hey,” He greets back. Dean leads her to his spot at the bar. And at that moment Ellen shows up to give Dean the coke he asked for.

“Oh,” She says. She wipes her hands with a bar rag. “Hi there sweetie.” Mabel smiles at the lady behind the bar. “Who's your friend?” The lady's looking at Dean now.

“This is Mabel,” Dean introduces. “She moved in with Cas the other night.”

“Oh,” The lady says intrigued. “Well, Mabel, I'm Ellen.” Mabel extends a hand and Ellen laughs while shaking it. “Is there anything I can get you?”

“Um, maybe a glass of water?” Mabel asks hesitant that she would be able to pay for it.

Ellen looks Mabel up and down and frowns slightly at her appearance. Mabel waits patiently for Ellen to move. Ellen smiles, “How about a vanilla shake and some fries?” Mabel looks at the woman surprised. “It's alright. I'll put it on Dean's tab.”

“I don't have a tab!” Dean barks.

“You don't have one because your brother pays for it,” Ellen states giving him an unimpressed look. She leaves the counter and heads towards the back.

Mabel smiles, “She's really nice.”

Dean sighs, “On most days. Ellen can put the fear of God in you if you're not careful.” Mabel laughs lightly. Dean sees her swing her legs, the pant legs flapping as she does so. “Can I ask you something?” Mabel looks at him and nods. “Um, when you told me Cas picked you up off the streets, what did you mean exactly?”

She looks at the counter, going silent. Did he say something wrong?

“You know how I told you how I ran away from foster care right?” She asks suddenly. He nods. “Well ever since I was seven, I've only been taking care of myself. I found my clothes. I found myself food. I made my own roof. Just me. I'm too young to earn any money and I barely know people who would put me up for the night. I stopped sharing rooms with men after I spent the night at my friend Cole's apartment.”

“What happened?” Dean asked nervously.

“One of his friends snuck into my room once and just started putting his hands up and down my body,” She said not really shuddering. She looked as if it were innocent play and it didn't bother her. “ I asked him to stop but he didn't. So I got up and just walked away.” Dean stared at her surprised she was able to walk away so easily. “After that Cole told me to find somewhere else to sleep.”

Dean rubbed a hand over his mouth unsure of what to say next. Then the thought of her out with people like Cole or Martha bugged him.

“Did... any of your 'friends' ever ask you to do anything that looked strange to you?”

Thankfully, she shakes her head.

“Well, I think Jeremy did once,” She mutters. “But he changed his mind after he asked.”

“What did he want you to do?”

“He was offering me a needle,” She stated. Dean resisted the urge to just leave the Roadhouse to hunt these people down. “But he took it back realizing what he was offering me.”

Dean pauses her to keep from telling more, “So what you're telling me, you did what you could to survive alone?” She nods. “Thank God you're safe now.” He sees her smile a little.

“I kind of miss them though,” Mabel sighs. “They were the only friends I really had.”

“Well, you got me now,” He states. He sees her little smile go bigger showing, surprisingly, white teeth.

Jo brings over the order Ellen had promised Mabel.

“Hey there,” Jo smiles. “What's your name?”

“Mabel.”

“What a sweet name,” Jo compliments. “Here you go.” She puts the order down in front of her. “Enjoy.”

“Thank you,” Mabel says. Jo walks away. “She's pretty.”

Dean smirks watching Jo walk away, “I know right?” Mabel sees the look on his face and then looks at herself. Shyly she covers her bare stomach, hunching over as if she were trying to hide within herself. She carefully reaches out to one of the fries and nibbles on it. Dean turns to talk to Mabel and sees how she was suddenly sitting. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing,” Mabel murmurs almost in a whisper. She doesn't look up from her basket of fries. Her hair was blocking her eyes mostly like a wall was being put up between them.

“Mabel?”

She shakes her head then straightens out, “It's nothing, Dean.” She smiles at him to hide her sudden discomfort. Dean looks at her concerned before shrugging it off. Mabel scoots her basket over to share with him. Then she now sees the textbook sitting on the counter. “Were you studying?”

Dean puts a fry in his mouth, “Yeah. Sam's making sure I'm prepared for anything. It's so annoying.”

“Must be nice having an older brother,” Mabel smirks.

He shrugs, “I guess. I mean all he's doing is watching over me. I would do the same in another life.”

Mabel smiles. She likes how much Sam and Dean care for each other.

“Can I ask you something?” She asks after sipping at her shake. Dean nods. “Why are you living with your brother?”

Dean doesn't particularly shut up but he does goes quiet for awhile. Just as Mabel thinks she may have offended him, he replies, “Our mom died in a fire when I was four. Sam was a senior in high school when it happened. Our Dad couldn't save our mom in time. He went into a drunken state and shut us out. So when Sam graduated he grabbed me and we left.”

Mabel frowned, “I'm sorry.”

“It's okay. My dad started to fix himself up just after Sam graduated college,” He reassured.

“Do you miss her?” She asks.

“My mom? Yeah, all the time,” He replies. “I miss my Dad too. Sam calls him sometimes and I get to talk to him. But usually at the end of some calls they get into a fight and Sam makes me go to my room.”

Mabel looks down at the counter. Poor Dean. His family is broken.

“I'm sure you're Dad will get better,” She says. Dean looks at her. “Then when he's better, you can see him again.”

Dean smiles, “I hope so.”

They sit there for awhile talking and eating fries.

Ellen walks over, “Hey kiddo, your brother called to check on you.” She holds out the restaurant phone to Dean. He takes the phone and hops off his stool to talk to his brother. She then turns to Mabel. “So Mabel.”

“Yes?”

“Tell me about yourself.”

Mabel smiles, “You're probably gonna be the fourth person I tell my story to.”

Ellen leans in, “I'm all ears.”

Mabel then gets into telling Ellen the exact same story she told Castiel, Sam, and Dean. How foster care was, her running away, and the encounters she came across when she was on the street. Ellen looked at the girl with sadness in her eyes.

“You poor thing,” She murmurs. Then she looks her up and down. “You must be hungry.”

Mabel chuckles, “No, no. It's okay. Thanks to Castiel, I can get enough to eat nowadays.”

Ellen nods, “Okay. How is Castiel? Is he treating you okay?”

Mabel nods, “Yeah. He's kind to me. I met his sister last night. She's gonna take me shopping soon.”

Then it hits Ellen. The way Mabel was dressed. She gets an idea.

“How about I give you some of Jo's old clothes to hold you off?” She suggests.

Mabel blinks at Ellen surprised, “I wouldn't want to bother you. After all you did just give me food that I couldn't pay for.”

Ellen waves a hand, “Ah, it's all fine. Please, I'd feel awful if I see you walking around in stuff that doesn't compliment your pretty face.” Mabel blushes and accepts Ellen's offer.

Dean comes back handing Ellen the phone. Ellen winks to Mabel then walks back to tend to her other customers.