Come in With the Rain

Each one of Dean's friends answers all of Mabel's questions with as much maturity as they could muster. Sam was in his office working on his latest case, letting Dean and his friends get along fine without him in the room.

“I'm running back,” Victor states. “I'm the one that catches the ball that Dean throws.” Mabel nods seeming more interested than she should. “God help Dean if he ever throws me a perfect pass.”

“Okay, so I threw you three bad balls,” Dean groans. “So what?”

Victor raises a brow, “Need I say?” Dean folds his arms and slumps in his chair. Mabel giggles. “So Mabel, tell us something about yourself.”

Mabel runs a finger on the rim of her mug, “Well, I don't know if Dean's already told you...” Dean sits up realizing what she was about to tell them. “... Just a few days ago, I used to be homeless.” His friends didn't say anything. “I was very fortunate to have Castiel find me. Other wise I’d be out in the rain right now.”

“Didn't you ever try to go to any foster homes?” Tessa asked looking at Mabel.

Mabel sighs, “I used to be in foster care. There were so many kids and my foster parents were angry a lot. They would shout at each other about the other kids. I'd listen to the older kids talking about leaving there but I never seen anyone leave. So I decided I’d give it a try.”

“And you ended up here?” Chuck asked. Mabel nods. “That must have been rough.”

“At times yeah, but you just gotta learn quickly or else you'll never know when your next meal will be,” She shrugs.

“You seem so nonchalant about all of this,” Victor mentions slightly frowning at her.

“Well, I can't particularly be upset about it,” She states. “Ever since I was seven-”

“Seven!?”

“Yeah,” She continues. “I figured out how to live on the streets after watching a few homeless people. Some of them actually helped me out.”

Dean looked to his friends, “Yeah, and some not too kind.”

“What do you mean?” Tessa asks putting a hand to her mouth.

“I'd have to admit, Dean is right,” Mabel sighs resting her hands on the table. “I've met people along the way. They were nice enough to give me food or a place to keep warm, but there was always something wrong about it.”

“I'm so sorry,” Tessa hushes as she put a hand on Mabel's arm.

“It's okay now,” She smiles. “I have Castiel now.”

Castiel fixed his papers before putting them in a manilla folder. His secretary walked into his office, “Sir, social services is on line three.”

“Thank you,” He says and reaches over to answer the call. “Hello?”

“Hi, Mr. Tippins, was it?” A strong female voice asks on the other end.

“Yes this is him,” Castiel replies.

“Yes, my name is Pamela Barnes,” The woman says. '”I was informed that you wanted information about one of our children?”

Castiel nods, even though he was on the phone, “Yes, a young girl named Mabel?”

“Sir, you're going to need to be specific. We have many Mabel's here,” Pamela says almost in a sigh.

“That's all I have. I don't have a last name,” He tells her. “Maybe you have a picture of her?”

“Depends. What does she look like?” Pamela asks.

“She has pale skin, strawberry blonde hair, and bluish-gray eyes,” Castiel sums up. Pamela tells him to hold as she goes to hunt for the file.

It takes a while before Pamela asks if he's still there. “Sir, I think I found the file you are requesting. Mabel …. hmm, the last name is missing. She was sent to two of our foster care programs but went missing after a few months.”

“I-I think that's her,” Castiel says. “Is there any chance I could come to your office to look at the file?”

Pamela replies, “Our office hours are from Seven to Nine Mondays to Thursdays. Eight to Seven Fridays. Nine to Four Saturdays.”

“Okay, thank you,” Castiel says hanging up.

Mabel sits on Dean's bed looking through a car magazine as Dean and his friends study. She slides over on the edge to be near Dean's face, “Dean, what's that say?”

He looks at the word she's pointing at, “Constant-velocity axle.”

Mabel nods and rolls onto her back still looking at the magazine. Dean can see his friends snickering.

“What?” He hisses quietly.

Tessa shrugs, “I don't know what you're talking about.” Dean rolls his eyes and eyes his friend.

“You two look cute together,” Chuck whispers with a tone of hilarity. Dean kicks his knee with the bottom of his foot. “It's true. Right?”

Victor smirks, “Yeah. Maybe you should stop fooling around with Lisa and think about hooking up with Mabel.”

“Who's Lisa?”

The room falls silent when Mabel asks. What do they say to Mabel? Lisa and Dean are fuck buddies?

“A friend,” Dean replies.

“Girlfriend?” Mabel asks. He opens his mouth but closes it when he couldn't form words. “Are you ashamed of her or something?”

He shakes his head, “No, no! I'm not.”

“Then is she your girlfriend?” She asks looking more curious than annoyed.

Tessa buts in, “Yeah!”

“Tessa!”

“Okay,” Mabel says sitting up. She adjusts Dean's jersey then realizes. “I wonder if Sam's done with my laundry.” Dean watches Mabel slide off his bed and walk out the door.

“What the hell!” He shouts as his friends laugh at him.

“Dude! That was so awkward!” Victor laughs gripping his stomach.

“Yeah, thanks to you guys she thinks my thing with Lisa is serious!” Dean barks.

Tessa waves a hand at Dean, “Oh come off it Dean! That thing with Lisa. It was bound to turn serious someday.”

Chuck laughs, “Yeah, we all think so.”

Mabel skips over to Sam's office, “Sam? Are my clothes done?” Sam looks up and smacks his forehead.

“I totally forgot! Hang on.”

He gets up from his desk and leads Mabel to the laundry room. He pulls her former wet clothes from the drier and hands them to her.

“I'm gonna head home,” Mabel smiles. “I'll bring back Dean's jersey tomorrow.”

Sam nods, “Okay. You say goodbye to Dean before you go though.”

Mabel looks to her feet and shakes her head, “No, he's busy with his friends. I don't want to bother him.”

Sam didn't like the way Mabel looked down when he mentioned Dean. Did he do something to her? Mabel waves to him as she walks out the door. She drew in a sharp breath before going to the apartment.

Sam walks over to Dean's room and sees him laughing with his friends, “Mabel says bye, by the way.”

“Aw, she left?” Tessa asks frowning. Sam nods as he gives his little brother his signature bitch-face before walking off. “Did we tease her too much?”

Castiel rode the elevator down. It stopped a couple floors before the lobby and he wasn't surprised to see who walked in.

“Hi Cas,” Michael greeted. Castiel greeted his brother back. “Are you heading back to Mabel?”

“Yeah,” Castiel said. “I haven't been spending a lot of time with her since I took her in.”

Michael suddenly gets a brilliant idea.

“You know,” He calls calmly. “That offer I've been proposing to you, if you take it, you get a lot of free time.”

Castiel frowns at his brother, “You're seriously still proposing this to me?”

Michael shrugs, “I'm just saying. Not only is the pay great but it gives you extra time to spend with Mabel.”

Castiel opens his mouth but shuts it. Michael smirks to himself seeing the gears going in Castiel's head. Clearly he was contemplating the idea of being head of Accounting and Sales Marketing.

“Fine,” Castiel finally spoke. “I'll take it, but I'm not moving.”

“Deal,” Michael says shaking hands with his little brother. “So, you going to adopt Mabel?”

“I'm looking into her paperwork first,” Castiel replied. “There are some major things missing about her.”

Michael smiles, “If it makes you feel better, I can help with the hunt.”

“Thank you Michael.”

Mabel sat in front of the TV changed into her previous clothes. She was starting to feel lonely. Because of Castiel's work, she barely got to see the man. Now that she has someone in her life it just feels lonely that she can't see them more than intended. Sighing, Mabel decided to turn herself upside down to calm herself. Sometimes the blood to her head helped her feel better, made her realize she needed to come to reality when it got too much for her. She reached for one of the four remotes and turned on the stereo blasting what ever station it was programmed on.

Castiel fumbled with his keys and looked ahead. He saw Dean walking over to his apartment.

“Hello Dean,” Castiel called. Dean looked up seeing his original neighbor.

“Hey Cas,” Dean waved. Castiel came up to his door. “Uh, I was just going to go talk to Mabel.”

Castiel raised a brow, “Okay.” He put his key into the door but stopped. “What about?”

Dean gave Castiel a surprised look, “Dude, can't I just talk to my friend?”

Castiel didn't say anything more and opened his door. He and Dean were surprised to hear Taylor Swift blasting through the apartment. They saw a set of bare feet hanging off the back of the couch. They bobbed with the beat of the music. Carefully they walked over to the couch.

Mabel had her eyes closed as her head hung off the edge of the cushions. Her mouth mouthing to the lyrics.

“Mabel?”

She jerked forward her legs kicking up into the air one foot barely hitting Dean in the face.

“Whoa! Castiel! You're back?” She shouted trying to roll onto her feet only to land with an awkward thump on her face. She got the remote and turned the music off. “Hi.” She then saw Dean and looked down. “Hi Dean.”

“Did you have dinner?” Castiel asks before Dean could greet back. Mabel nods. “Did you have a nice day?”

Mabel walks around the couch smiling, “Yes I did.” At first Dean thinks it's because she met his friends but Mabel says something different. “The money you left me, I used to feed a homeless man just a few blocks from here.”

Castiel smiles and puts a hand on her head, “Good for you Mabel. I'm so proud of you.”

Mabel giggles and looks to Dean ready to say something but catches herself and looks to Castiel, “How was your day?”

Dean furrows his brow. He wasn't gonna let that bother him. Or make him angry. Nope. Not at all. Okay maybe just a little. What the hell was that? Is she trying to avoid talking to him?

Castiel explains to Mabel how he was going to go to the Social Services office to pick up her papers and file for adoption for her. Mabel got excited to see that everything was coming together. She looks over to Dean but looks away quickly hiding the pink forming on her cheeks.

Dean couldn't take it anymore.

“Hey Cas,” He calls looking over to Castiel. “Why don't you have Mabel come with me to school tomorrow?”

Castiel frowns, “I don't know Dean. Wouldn't it be a disturbance to your classes?”

Mabel makes a confused look as if she was a disturbance.

Dean waves a hand, “Nah, it's all good. Plus think about it. Since she's never been to school, this could give her an idea of what it's like.”

Castiel thinks for a moment, “Well, it's up to Mabel.”

Dean looks to Mabel with a smile, “So, Mabel you want to come to school with me tomorrow?”