crossoverfic | (no subject)

Title: Untitled
Author:

maab_connor
Fandom: Supernatural/Saving Grace
Characters; Castiel + Earl
Rating: this is total gen fic, rated g
Spoilers: early Season 4 Supernatural, any time for Saving Grace before the last 4 episodes.
Warnings: Not a one.
Word Count: ~7,500
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. I am sure you’re shocked to hear this, shocked to your very core. But it is the sad, sad truth.
Summary: Castiel asks Earl for help on dealing with difficult humans

Author’s Notes: this was a

comment_fic that was requested by

mulder200; and Cas and Earl have been nibbling at my brain for a while so I had to take the opportunity to finally let them. This is totally unbetaed and written furiously this morning while… um… yeah, ok I was at work. Don’t tell the boss. Hope you like.

Louie’s bar was packed for a Thursday. Grace was shooting pool with Butch and laughing with Rhetta, Earl loved to watch her laugh. She was capable of more honest joy than seventy percent of his cases throughout time. He was smiling and sipping at his artisan water when he felt one of his siblings arrive.

A rumpled looking man with bright blue eyes and an oversized trench coat walked through the door and right over to him.

“Castiel,” Earl said, honestly surprised.

Cas frowned a bit. “I don’t understand how you do it.”

Earl laughed. “You knew that the Winchesters were going to be a handful when you took the job.”

“I didn’t think that they would be so…”

“Human?”

Cas didn’t say anything, but his sideways nod was affirmation enough.

“In the time I’ve been doing this job, I have seen wonders come from humans. Miracles of our father coming through them; the Sistine Chapel, Monet’s Water Lilies, Coca-Cola. They can do anything, they just don’t believe it half the time.”

“Sam and Dean are not like regular humans. They are stubborn and willful and prideful. They argue with each other, they argue with demons, they argue with me. It is… frustrating.”

Earl was smiling. “Shoot, brother, that’s some of the best stuff.”

Cas looked at his brother like he was trying the latest fashion of wearing a live pelican on one’s head.

Earl pointed to Grace and her friends. “You Seraphim class, you look at that woman up there and you see the tarnish on her soul. You see that she’s been workin’ real hard to get herself tossed in the pit. Half the time you’re more than willing to let her do just that, because y’all have bigger things to worry about.”

“You’re saying we’re close minded?”

“No. I’m saying that you’ve been on the front lines of a war for so long, you’ve forgotten what it’s about. Look at her again. She has a passion for life, she loves like no one else on the planet, and even though she’s been broken, she fights. I’d be willing to say she fights just as hard as a whole platoon of Seraphim.”

“You love her.” It wasn’t a question and it wasn’t an accusation; but for Cas, it was a revelation.

“Thousands of years I’ve been doing this job, Cas, I love each and every one of them.” Earl’s smile turned softer. “She’s one of my favorites though.” He reached out a hand and laid it on Castiel’s shoulder.

The Lucky Duck Tavern and Inn had a very unfortunate mallard motif. Sam was at the small table, research materials surrounding him and his bleary eyes fixed on the screen of his laptop. Dean was sitting up on his bed, legs stretched out in front of him, reading an ominous-looking book and frowning.

Earl walked over to Sam, knowing that he and Castiel were just enough out of reality that they couldn’t be seen or heard. “You see a rather large stain on this one, don’t you? He has darkness and rage and more secrets than anyone is comfortable with.”

“He concerns me,” Castiel said in agreement.

“Stubborn, willful, brooding and vengeful,” Earl said as though Cas hadn’t spoken. “But he is also full of fear and doubt and compassion. He wants to do what’s right, and he applies all of that stubborn, vengeful nature towards trying to kill demons, to balance the scales. He loves with all of his heart, but he doesn’t trust love.”

“My understanding of human nature is that they strive for love. His aversion is… confusing.”

“Is it?” Earl countered. “He was six months old when his mother was murdered. His father – who had the same mile-wide vengeful streak – was obsessed with demon hunting. The only person Sammy here could ever count on was Dean. Dean raised him. Dean loved him. Dean was brother and father and mother. And when Sam was fourteen, Dean started hunting too. And Sam was alone. The last thing he wanted was this life. He hates it. He hates hunting. He hates not having a home. Heck, he hates the smell of the car. But he does it. Every day. Because, while he didn’t know his mother, he knew that she loved him. And he had Jess. She was home to him. She was everything he wanted and needed. And she was murdered. And he did the one thing he swore he’d never do.”

“What’s that?”

“He turned into his father.” Earl could have cried right then, for what this soul could have been and for what he was now. But he wasn’t here because these men were his case, they were his brother’s and Cas needed help. So he moved over to Dean. “He needs you a lot right now.”

“He yells at me and calls me an asshat.”

Earl laughed at that. “I’m sure he does. Seems like the pulling-pigtails type.”

Cas frowned, but Earl ignored him.

“He’s a lot like Grace. He’s been broken in ways that other humans can’t imagine. He uses sex and booze and food to make himself feel; but not too much. He thinks that he’s useless; that he’s worthless… and he’s more important than he can imagine.”

“I dragged him out of the pit… how can he think he’s not important?”

“That’s the human condition, Cas. Ash lost this case because this man has the capacity for so much love that he sold his soul to bring back his brother-“

“Setting into motion-“

“That’s not what I’m talking about. He didn’t know what would happen. He didn’t know about the seals. They don’t understand because they can’t see the way we can.”

“Which is exasperating.”

“Nah… it’s beautiful. They’re like blind children in a lot of ways. But look at what they can do. This soul spent sixty years in hell. That’s twice the time he’s had on Earth. He was in the deepest, darkest, most terrible part of the pit. And he went there for love. He was put through unimaginable pain and torment and torture. And now he’s back and he has to face something even worse.”

“What could possibly be worse than the pit?”

“Living. And that’s what he has to do now. But now… he has the weight of what happened in the pit to deal with. And I doubt he’s so much as whispered about it. Plagued by nightmares and PTSD flashbacks, but he won’t talk about it.”

“How do I make him?”

“You don’t. You just listen when he’s ready.”

“I fail to see how this helps, Earl. I need to know how to mobilize them so that Heaven has a fighting chance in the upcoming war.”

Earl shook his head. “Humans don’t work like that. You have a vessel now, you should understand better.”

“What does my vessel have to do with anything?”

“He’s a part of you now. And he’s human. You gonna try to tell me that humanity doesn’t touch you? Doesn’t move you? That’s not a pair of shoes you’re wearing, there. That’s one of god’s creations; perfect in every flaw. That is a man of such faith and devotion that he gave up his life so that an angel’s work could be done. He’s stuck with you now, as for better or worse as any marriage. Listen to him sometimes. He has the advantage when dealing with humans because he was one.”

Castiel took a moment to think about what his brother had just said. “Guardians see creation very differently to Seraphim.”

Earl smiled and put some dip in his cheek. “You’ve been at this two weeks, Cas. Give it time. You’re just starting to learn the fun stuff.”

“Fun stuff.” Somehow, Cas didn’t believe it.

-note to the mods, there is not a tag for Saving Grace.