Ohio, 14 May 1988 C.E.

[hear_the_voices]

Anna Milton is supposed to be napping.

But her parents have discovered, in the two and half years of her life, that Anna is not much of a sleeper. There's always something more interesting to be doing.

And it's not like people can be made to sleep.

But they can be made to stay in their beds, and stay quiet, for an hour.

Anna is sitting up in her bed, whispering a story to her teddy bear, and waiting until she can get up.

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[thursdays_angel]

Anna no longer exists for Castiel. At least, she is not supposed to.

Her name is almost never mentioned among the other angels. And when it is, it is quiet, spoken with venom, or warning. A cautionary tale about where discontent and disobedience can lead.

Betrayal. Desertion. Flying in the face of God, Himself.

She is not even afforded the attention that an angel found guilty of profound disobedience would warrant. Namely, a death sentence. Anna escaped that by becoming human. And therefore untouchable.

All the hosts of Heaven can really do is try to obliterate all memory of her, ignore her existence. It is not an order. But it is strongly suggested.

Castiel wishes he could comply.

But knowing that her existence continues, even in such an alien form, is like a wound that he keeps worrying raw. That cannot be allowed to heal.

And so three years and two months after he last saw his sister, Castiel quietly appears in the home of Rich and Amy Milton.

[hear_the_voices]

Wait.

What was that?

Anna stops talking, dropping her teddy bear onto her bed, and looks around, eyes wide.

". . . 'lo?"

[thursdays_angel]

Curious.

Castiel came here to see. Not to be seen. In his mind it had not occurred to him that she would have any idea of his presence.

Indeed, he would not have come if he had thought there was a chance.

It is easier not to be seen.

But it may be nothing. A human child's imagination. Nothing more.

[hear_the_voices]

Anna's eyes get even wider.

"Hello?" she says, more loudly.

There's someone here.

She knows it.

And it's someone she knows.

And probably not good that he is here.

Probably not good at all.

"Hello?"

[thursdays_angel]

He should withdraw. By rights, he should not even be here.

And yet there is a small, traitorous part of him that wants to speak to what remains of his sister, one more time.

Even though it is likely futile--likely that she will not hear. Even though it is not really her.

Anna?

[hear_the_voices]

There is a part of Anna that has known for more than centuries how to respond to threats.

(It is the same part of Anna that would not apply that word to Castiel.)

Unfortunately, that part of Anna is fading from her consciousness, a little more every day, in the half-remembered way a dream fades in the morning. And what is left is filtered through the limitations of a human mind.

A very young human mind.

A very young and now very scared human mind.

Anna pulls her blankets up over her head, clutches her teddy bear and waits for the intruder to go away.

[thursdays_angel]

Proof enough. The Anna he knew would never hide in fear.

Yet, there is a part of her still there.

And Castiel suddenly wants that part of her to see him. To pay attention. To have to acknowledge what she did. To have to face at least this one consequence of her actions.

Why should she be allowed to leave and simply forget?

The blankets are tugged down off of her head by a hand no human being can see.

LOOK AT ME.

[hear_the_voices]

The lights in her room begin to flicker and spark, and while she doesn't hear the individual words, Anna is aware that someone is here and that that someone is mad.

And she knows why.

Anna scrambles backwards across the bed until she reaches the wall, and screams.

"Mommy!"

[thursdays_angel]

The scream is pure humanity. Anna as she has become, not the Anna who was.

Castiel has been met with fear from humans before. It is not for nothing that the words, Be no afraid, have been attributed to angels.

In the course of his duties, he has used that fear to carry out his Father's purposes. And he has dealt death and destruction, also in the line of duty. With resolve and efficiency.

But that was different. This? What he is feeling now?

This is wrath.

And so when he retreats to the far corner of the room, it's as much to protect himself as it is to spare her further fear.

[hear_the_voices]

"Mommy!" Anna screams again, and there's the sound of footsteps, coming down the hall. "Mommy!"

It's her father, though, who comes hurrying into the room.

"Anna?"

Anna's eyes dart from the door to Castiel's corner, and back.

"Anna?" Rich Milton asks, looking over to the apparently empty corner. "What's wrong, honey?"

Anna shakes her head. "No. No."

Rich reaches for his daughter. "It's okay, honey. It's okay. Daddy's here."

"You're not my daddy," she says. "You're not. You're not."

"Anna, calm down," her father says. "You had a bad dream. That's all, honey. Just a bad dream."

"He's mad," Anna says, growing increasingly agitated, moving away from her father's out-stretched hand. "He wants to kill me."

Rich looks at his terrified, wild-eyed daughter, and then yells for his wife.

[thursdays_angel]

Castiel has never had a bad dream--or any kind of dream at all--but from his understanding it is not a bad way to describe this state of affairs.

He slips out of the house. He never should have come here in the first place.

He will not come back.

But Castiel cannot help but look back at the house. At the window to the room where words of comfort from a mother and a father are doing nothing to quiet the child's screams.

"He does not want that," he says.

Before racing away towards the horizon.