Chapter One: I Hope You Enjoyed Your Stay

"You just want me to kiss you don't you?" I giggled as he leaned closer. His brown hair was soft in my hands as I fell against him until I could feel his breath on my face. His eyes were the brightest blue I had ever seen. He was handsome, I still wondered how I managed to convince the once play-boy to settle down into a semi-functioning relationship with me. He was like my own little miracle, someone as unearthly in beauty, with someone as boring as me, with my plain brown hair and average looks. The only thing exciting about me was my strange silver-grey eyes, well, some called them pretty, most people however, muttered that they were unnerving behind my back.

"Maybe…" He breathed, gently he touched his lips to mine, my brain exploded and the rest of the world faded away. I forgot our small apartment, the music we were dancing too and the sparkling lights of the city outside. Everything went black, I was so involved in the kiss that I couldn't even feel him anymore. Everything was just a sea of darkness.

I opened my eyes to see the same pair of startling blue looking back at me. But I wasn't in my apartment, instead I was in a dark abandoned warehouse, I was hanging by my hands from a thick rusted chain two feet off the ground. And those blue eyes were looking at me, not with warmth and love, but with a cold curiosity. I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat was as dry as the Sahara. I wanted to ask where I was, but it came out as a strangled croak that was barely intelligible. "W-arr-aaa-I?"

"Do not speak, you have not consumed liquid in a year, your vocal chords will be damaged if you attempt to communicate." The man said, he stood back, he was wearing a black suit underneath a beige trench coat. My arms ached, I swayed myself forward and jangled the chain I was hanging from.

"Mhm!" I murmured angrily, my arms were on fire and my stomach was like a black hole. He nodded and pulled a long silver blade from the hidden depths of his coat. Positioning it carefully, he struck a calculated blow and the thick chain snapped easily. I fell the short drop, but my legs, my muscles, hell my whole body jarred with the sudden pressure and I collapsed on the floor. At least I started to, but the trench coated stranger (that looked exactly like the man I had been sharing a flat with), caught me quickly and carried me in his arms like I was a five year old. I tried to move my fingers, but all they did was spasm with sudden use.

"Castiel! Come on let's go! You're my friend and I appreciate the help, but if you don't get your ass to the car I'm leaving you behind!" Another male voice called out from outside the building. "Who the hell is that?" he shouted as we came into view.

The man was tall with a thick muscles, he sported a working tan and his brown hair was windswept. His cheeks were flushed with exertion and his green eyes were shining with excitement. He was leaning against a black, '67 Chevy impala. Castiel walked us towards the car with a look of impatience on his face.

"This Dean, is the woman the Djinn was feeding on, the one you missed finding on your initial search of the building. This women had been strung up in that warehouse for a year and if I had not have found her, she would have died a slow painful death as the poison wore off." He scolded.

The other man held his hands up in a peace gesture. "I'm sorry Cas, Jesus, put her in the back and we'll take her to the motel and patch her up."

"Dean," Castiel sighed. "She hasn't eaten or drunk anything for an unknown amount of time, the only thing in her system is an IV bag. She needs nutrients." He opened the car door and placed me gently in the back seat. He then sat next to me, placing my head in his lap and slammed the door shut. "Take us to somewhere with food. I will heal her so she can at least stand."

Dean jumped in the front seat and started the engine. He drove in silence and my attention slipped from him to the man whose lap my head rested on. His blue eyes scanned my face as his hands rested gently on my chest cavity. I felt a buzzing in my ears and the pain in my arms began to cease. I felt good enough to sit up, so I did. I opened my mouth and breathing wasn't as painful as it was moments ago.

"Where in hell am I?" I demanded, my voice was still croaky, but my anxiousness was clear.

"You're in Nebraska." The man in the front answered back chuckling, "So close enough but not quite."

"But I was- Then I- We were- I-" My head spun and I groaned with confusion. "I need to drink a large quantity of alcohol, stat."

The driver chuckled again. "I like you." He then gave me a sympathetic glance from the mirror. "You were taken by a Djinn, a monster, all that stuff you've been experiencing, not real. This is reality, sorry to disappoint."

I caught Castiel shooting him a look, obviously he wanted Dean to be more tactful, but I was thankful for his abruptness. It forced me to get a grip on reality, well this reality anyway. "A Djinn is a monster, it captures its victims and stores them alive with the use of a poison, this poison makes the victim believe it is living a normal life, however this world is only in their mind." Castiel began to explain.

"I know what a Djinn is," I answered back, cutting him off. "I'm a, I mean I was, I mean in the fake world…" I shook my head, this was all so confusing. "A professor of folklore, at a college." I figured that I was, all the information was still there, I had been good at my job. Just because it wasn't real doesn't mean that I had suddenly lost my knowledge.

"You're pretty young for a college professor." Dean noted, he stared at me with a curiosity, like he was looking at me for the first time.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, that's what everyone said. "I know my lore; the rest is just stuff that happened along the way." I felt bad for shooting Castiel down before; he just looked so similar to him. It was unnerving. "Thanks for the recharge." I said softly, giving him appreciative glance. He cocked his head and stared curiously back at me and my cheeks blushed in the usual way. He frowned as my face flushed scarlet. This was so unfair; it wasn't my fault that in the imaginary world some monster created for me we were together. I had spent so long thinking of him in that way, my body couldn't help but respond.

Dean pulled the car into the lit up parking lot of a twenty-four hour diner, cutting off the engine he turned to the back seat and looked me over. "Can you walk?" he asked. I shrugged and gave him an unsure smile, I hoped I wasn't going to faint on him.

We hopped out of the car and Dean put his arm around my waist. It looked like we were a couple if anyone was to spare a glance, but he was in fact holding me upright and practically lifting me off the ground so I barely had to use my legs to walk. We found an out of the way booth and settled down; I resisted the urge to lean on Castiel's shoulder like I usually would. Dean looked down carefully at the menu, like it was life or death on whether or not he had the razzle-berry pie or peach cobbler. "What you feel like eating?" He asked me distractedly as he gazed at the two opposing deserts on his menu.

"In Djinntopia I was a vegan." I answered back. He silently handed me the salad menu, but I didn't bother looking past the glossy cover.

"Cas, you eating anything?" Dean asked the man opposite him as he smiled down at the menu, it appeared he had made his choice.

"Dean, you know that as an angel, I don't require sustenance." Castiel replied in his rough impassive voice. Dean just rolled his eyes in irritation. It took me a moment to process the fact that my saviour was a child of God, first edition. Typical, I always fell for the unattainable types. Angel of the Lord? That's about as no-way-in-hell-are-they-in-your-league as you could get. I allowed myself to be distracted by the other customers so not to induce another awkward blushing sequence with Castiel.

The waitress walked up to the booth and shot us a strained smile. It was clear she had had a stressful night and was impatient for her shift to end. By the way she glanced at her watch and scrunching her face in disappointment; I guessed it must be a long way off.

"I'll have a slice of the razzle-berry pie please, with cream." Dean folded up his menu and handed it to the waitress; she shoved it under her arm and turned to me, her pen at the ready.

"I'll have a serve of your venison pie, a side order of chips. As well as a hamburger with bacon, make it extra, extra crispy." I said to her, she raised an eyebrow, but I just leaned down to tie my shoelaces, letting her wonder.

"Anything to drink?" She asked in a sugar-sweet southern accent.

"Coke." Dean answered, giving her a winning smile.

"An extra-large chocolate milkshake, please." I said. My fingers were struggling to tie the knots on my filthy tennis shoes; they were weak and unable to create enough tension. Not to mention they keep shaking.

"And what about you honey?" The waitress asked Castiel kindly. He opened his mouth to reply, without thinking I responded from him, like I usually did.

"He'll have a black coffee, one sugar." I said distractedly as I finally secured the lace into the fashion I liked it. The waitress bustled off without another word, but Castiel gave me a harsh, inquisitive look. I smiled weakly, "Lucky guess, one of my many talents."

Soon enough our plates of food found us and I tucked into the pie with vigour. "What happened to being vegan?" Dean asked me, his eyes slightly wide at the amount of food I managed to consume in five seconds.

"Screw Bambi." I said through a mouthful of venison pie, which was in fact delicious. Dean smirked before tucking into his plate himself.

Castiel stared at me intently, usually I rose to the challenge of the weight of those ever-blue eyes, but they weren't my eyes, the blues ones that I loved. So instead they made me feel subconscious and uncomfortable. "What?" I finally snapped, turning away from my half eaten burger to glare at him.

"You haven't told us your name; I was contemplating what to call you until you decided to reveal it." Castiel answered back stonily. To the untrained eye, he would have appeared untouched by my lashings out. But I was well versed in the ways of that face; I knew that he was upset.

"Sorry," I sighed "I just woke up from a pretty good life to find out it was a figment of my imagination. Implanted by a monster by the use of poison, meanwhile while I was off in fairyland, I managed not only to lose every memory of my previous existence, but also was a snack-on-the-go for a psychotic genie on steroids. So, I am a little rusty at social skills, ok?" I huffed; glad to get rid of all of my frustration, confusion and anger. Even if some of it was a little less to do with being a midnight meal for a Djinn, and more to do with the fact he looked so similar. "My name is Bethany." I added. I said my name clearly, because most people automatically give me a nickname, Beth, Bee, Ben, Benny. I couldn't conjure my parents' faces to mind, but I distinctly felt that they didn't appreciate nicknames of any sort. I had been Bethany for all my life; I was going to stay that way.

Castiel frowned and appeared unsatisfied with my response, however he didn't push me further, so I went back to slurping the last of my milkshake. "Done." I announced out of habit. It had taken me less than five minutes to consume my entire meal. Dean shook his head at me, like he was confounded at how I, someone so slim in stature, managed to store away that much food. As I waited for him to finish his pie, I picked up a spare table knife and began playing with it. I kept dropping it; I let out a grunt of frustration before trying again, and again, and again.

"May I ask what you are trying to achieve?" Castiel queried as he watched me finally master picking up the knife and move on to summoning up enough strength to stab it into the table.

I looked up, startled by his question. I was going to ignore him but Dean looked at me with interest too, so I felt like I ought to explain myself. "Look," I began. "I've only just met you, and I'm not one to judge, but you guys seem like the type that trouble finds. A lot." Dean snorted at that comment. "I was just seeing that if in a desperate situation that will inevitably occur, whether or not I will be able to defend myself. I am not exactly a poster girl for perfect health at the moment and I don't want to end up monster kibble again."

"Why do you think we attract trouble?" Castiel asked, tilting his head to frown at me. Dean practically choked on his pie; I had to hand him a glass of water so he could clear his airways and breathe again.

"Well Cas." Dean wheezed he was fighting a smile as he tried to put on a serious face for the other man. "It might have something to do with you being a rogue angel running from heaven, me being a monster hunter who likes to piss people off and Sammy being a favourite of the King of Hell when it comes to sending trouble his way."

"You have a point." Castiel nodded thoughtfully, he returned to gazing outside the window to the street opposite.

"Sammy?" I asked frowning. Monster hunter? Rogue angels? King of Hell? I was really confused.

"Sam is my brother." Dean clarified. "So your probably wondering how this all works right?" he looked at me understandingly. I nodded, he was right; I hated not knowing what the hell they were talking about. It was being like the kid being the punch line of the inside joke. So he explained it all to me, his mom, Azazel the demon general, Castiel saving him from hell, Chuck the prophet of the lord/ writer, Lilith, Ruby, the Apocalypse, Lucifer, Michael, the Leviathans, the Tablets, the Trials, Bobby, Charlie, Meg, Kevin. By the end Castiel was finishing his fifth refill of coffee and our waitress had finished her shift.

"Wow." I said stunned when he had finally finished up to the current events. Sam had just finished the second trial of hell, Kevin was almost done deciphering the last of the tablet, and Dean had roped Castiel into helping him with a Djinn problem and that led to them finding me.

"Yeah, I know," Dean grimaced, "and you didn't even live it." Now that he had finally explained everything, I began to notice the wear and tear of a man whose been forced to the edge too many times. Dean had huge bags under his eyes, his skin was pale under his tan and his smile was strained. I reached over and squeezed his hand, I didn't know what it was like in his shoes, but I could appreciate the kind of person it would take to fill them. Dean seemed to have made a few mistakes, but the good he has done to rectify it? I couldn't imagine anyone else with that kind of heart, with that kind of soul, who would take that duty because he just happened to be there.

"So," I straightened up and gave both Dean and Castiel an uneasy glance. "How does this work, do you drop me off at the closest hospital?" I bit my lip, "I would say leave me here, but the thing is besides my name, I don't know who I am. That Djinn didn't just take a chomp, he did something to me." My eyes watered, I didn't want to cry in front of this man and an angel, but the situation finally dawned on me, I was alone. "I don't remember anything at all. It's just blank and I don't know what to do, all I can ask is that you-" Tears were streaming down my face and my voice caught in my throat. "- That you don't leave me here, please, don't leave me here alone."

I bowed my head and closed my eyes, taking shaky breaths I tried to calm myself down. I was surprised when the angel sitting next to me gently pulled me into a hug. Dean was too because he gave Castiel a weird look. "Cas what are you doing?"

"I believe that when someone is upset, the social obligation is to comfort them, is that correct?" He asked. I had buried my face into his chest, letting the fabric of his trench coat soak up my tears. I relaxed against him as he cradled me, letting me calm down enough to pull away.

"That's right." I said weakly as I wiped my tears away.

Dean smiled at me kindly and slapped down enough money to pay for our meals. "Now you come with us and we'll show you our secret bunker." He wiggled his eyebrows, making me laugh and lifting the mood. We walked back to his car and I slid in the back seat.

The drive was long and quiet and I could feel myself falling asleep. You'd think of god knows how long I was hanging in that warehouse; I would have had enough sleep to last a life time. But I was exhausted. I heard a creak and Castiel threw his trench coat over me and I let my eyes slid shut. I drifted off to the sound of the impala's engine and Dean faintly humming Led Zeppelin.

A/N: Okay so this is the first chapter of my story, I haven't done a fanfiction in a while and I don't really know how long I want this to go. I'll probably update this in a week-ish. SO please tell me what you think, do you want more? Any feedback would be great, constructive or otherwise. So until next week, thanks for reading! :)