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On the advice of their taxi driver, Castiel and Jack ended up going to the King's Lair Hotel, after the man insisted that they had modest prices. Castiel stared dubiously at the graffiti on the wall and the blinking neon light that said 'Hotel' but went in anyway and paid for Room 11. As they were about to go down the hallway, he stopped momentarily and rolled his eyes when he saw the driver actually come in for a moment and flirt with the pretty concierge.
Castiel decided to take a risk and stow the duffle in their room, grabbed a couple of twenties, and they went to the nearest Biggerson's because Jack wanted food and Cas had not had coffee in two days.
Later, they stopped at a shopping mall to get clothes after Jack spotted a pair of sunglasses he liked and it reminded Castiel that they had no clothes other than what they were wearing. If they were to blend in as humans they would need clothes. And phones. And a used car...
*****
Thursday November 3rd, 2005
Gabriel startled when the chair by the professor's empty desk moved. He carefully put down the mop as he heard clacking as words began to appear on the screen. But not in English... What in dad's name was going on?
Ward the room. Gabriel, we need to talk.
It was in Norse, which was weird—worse still, they knew his name. His real name.
Gabriel tried not to freak out as he complied. He shed a little blood, drew a couple of Nordic Runes and chanted. However, once he was done warding the room from Heaven, Hell and everyone else he quickly chanted something else forcing...
“Castiel?! Where did you learn that spell? And Norse?” Gabriel said--while trying to hide that he was a little impressed--to the angel suddenly sitting at the desk and looking cross at him.
“Gabriel, we need your help.” Castiel replied in his usual deep yet even tone of voice. Really, Gabriel thought, he should sell adds.
“I don't know how you found me, but I'm not going to help Michael tear everything apart.” Gabriel scowled.
“I want to stop the Apocalypse.” Said dear, naive Cassie. Of course he does.
Gabriel tried to explain it to Castiel gently:
“There's nothing you can do, Michael is hell-bent on making it a reality so he can finish his pissing contest with Lucifer.”
“I have two things they don't know about.” Castiel said in a less than stoic tone.
Gabriel nobly refrained from rolling his eyes.
“Oh yeah, what's that?”
“Knowledge of the future, and someone who could change the game.” Castiel said earnestly.
Oh, great. Naomi broke him and now he's in La La Land.
“Riiight. See this is why I shouldn't make time for pretty boy a--”
“You could see into my mind. What do you have to lose?”
Well, he supposed he could use a laugh.
As the images flew through Gabriel's mind, he realized that Castiel's half-baked plan had a snowball's chance in hell of working. With a little input from Gabriel, however...