Didn't Run Far Enough

Chapter 3

Apparently it's a good thing Castiel didn't tell Charlie anything earlier, because when he's called into Chief Jody Mills's office, she's called in right alongside him. It looks like she'll get to hear the whole story anyway, whether he wants her to or not. It's probably for the best; she is his best friend, after all. She deserves to know.

"You know, Novak," Jody says, "I just heard the most interesting story."

CastieI swallows hard and forces himself to meet her eye. He thought it was hard to talk to Dean, but that's nothing compared to facing the chief.

"I heard you were at the bank this afternoon," Jody continues.

"Yes, ma'am," Castiel says.

"And I heard that you had a very interesting conversation with a bank robber."

Castiel doesn't answer. He doesn't think she's really looking for an answer.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," Jody says.

CastieI knew this was coming, but that doesn't make it any easier. "Where would you like me to start?"

"Wherever the hell you want to," Jody replies.

CastieI nods once. That's fair enough. Now he just has to figure out what to say. He'd been trying to figure it out for the last hour, and he's absolutely no closer to finding an easy way to put it than he was when this all went down. It seems his only option is word vomit and hoping for the best.

"Well," he says, "my parents died when I was a kid, so I spent most of my middle school years on the streets with my brothers. When I was 13, Dean Winchester took us under his wing.

"It wasn't a gang at the time. It was..." He gestures vaguely, trying to find the right word. "It was kind of a family. Just 10 or 15 of us in an abandoned office building, and we took care of each other. Everyone was fed, everyone was clothed, everyone was loved.

"It would've been fine if it had stopped there, but it kept growing. We kept taking in people who needed a friend or needed a roof over their head. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, but in hindsight, I guess we should have known you could only gather so many lonely homeless kids and teenagers before things go south.

"Dean started the thing so he was determined to keep everyone in line. But, I mean, with so many mouths to feed, it was only a matter of time before we had to resort to crime -- petty crime at first; shoplifting from Target, things like that -- but it really devolved from there."

"And you?" Jody prompts.

Castiel shrugs half-heartedly. "I devolved with them, I guess. I didn't think I had much of a choice." He forces himself to perk up as he adds, "And then one day I left; took some money, bought myself a college education, and now here I am."

"So you know Dean Winchester?" Jody says. "You know his gang?"

"Knew," Castiel corrects her. "I knew them."

"And you never thought to mention this?"

CastieI scoffs. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I owed you a list of my sins. You got a pen and some paper? This might take a while."

Charlie elbows him in the ribs, which is probably a fair response. Sassing the police chief is never a good idea, but given the situation, this is probably the worst time to do it.

Jody looks at Charlie. "Did you know any of this?"

Charlie shakes her head. "Not until today."

Jody looks between the two of them skeptically, but she ultimately seems to believe it. "If there's anything else I should know — anything — I suggest you tell me right now."

"No, ma'am," Castiel replies. "That's everything." Everything except one crucial detail that he would very much like to leave out.

Jody looks at Charlie. "Is there anything you know that I don't?"

CastieI shoots her a don't you fucking dare look. He told Charlie because it explained a lot about what she saw. Jody wasn't there; she doesn't have to know.

Charlie definitely sees the look on his face, and for a few seconds, she hesitates. Ultimately, it's the impatient look on the chief's face that wins out, because she says a quiet, "I think so."

"And what would that be?" Jody asks.

Charlie glances at Castiel, but when all she gets getting him is a death glare, she has to answer it herself. "Cas told me he and Dean Winchester used to date."

CastieI balls his hands into fists, but he knows that getting mad at her here would be a death sentence. Just because Jody knows he was hiding it from her doesn't mean he can admit he was hiding it.

The expression on Jody's face seems incomplete without the mental visual of smoke pouring out of her ears, but when she speaks to him, her voice is calm to a frightening degree. "And you didn't think to mention this?"

"I prefer to keep my sexuality private," Castiel replies, knowing damn well that that's not at all true and not at all what she meant.

"You see the problem here, too, right?" Jody asks. "You're not actually that stupid; you're just playing dumb."

"No, I don't," Castiel lies.

"So you don't understand how this could be considered a conflict of interest?" Jody asks, and a rhetorical question has never sounded so calmly hostile.

"There's no conflict of interest," Castiel says.

Jody purses her lips. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long were you together?"

Castiel crosses his arms. "I don't see why —"

"How. Long."

Castiel grits his teeth. "Six years."

"Six —" Jody runs a hand down her face, exasperated. "So you're telling me that the lead suspect of your case is your ex boyfriend of six years, and you don't think that serves as even the slightest conflict of interest?"

"He's not a suspect," Castiel says. "He's just harboring them."

"Right, of course," she says sarcastically. "That's — that's great." She takes a deep breath before speaking again. "Do I even need to tell you that I'm taking you off this case, or is that a given?"

"But —"

"I'm not putting you on any case that has anything to do with your old buddies," Jody says.

Castiel scowls. "Fine. You're never going to find them anyway; he'll make sure of it. The whole case is a dead end."

"We'll see about that," Jody says. "Now go home, get some rest, and if there's anything else you're not telling me..."

CastieI just clenches his jaw walks away, leaving Charlie in the dust without so much as a second glance. This was not how he wanted today to go.