Part 1
It was about 7am in the morning when Castiel's eyes flew open due to the monstrous sound of his iphone's alarm. He regretted choosing that particular alarm sound almost every morning, but then again, had he chosen any other softer alarm and he wouldn't be able to wake up and he did not have the luxury to sleep through his alarm. Especially not today. He had a lot on his plate, after all. See, it was the start of school year. Now, to a lot of people that didn't mean anything but someone with a teenage daughter would understand the significance of it.
He got out of bed with a groan. He was 35, and yet sometimes he felt like he had already crossed 50. He tried to resist looking at the other side of the bed but just like waking up at 6am, glancing at the other side of his bed had become a habit for him too. He wasn't expecting someone there but the sadness that came with seeing it empty was still a surprise to him. It had been two years since the death of his wife, Amelia Novak. He still missed her terribly, but this sadness that came along with looking at the that empty side of the bed was more than that. It was like an ache. An ache for a companion, a significant other with whom he could talk about things that he could never discuss with Claire, His daughter.
Don't get him wrong. It wasn't that he was lonely. He had an amazing daughter that never failed to surprise him with her bold and caring nature. He had siblings that always had his back. He had friends that he considered family. Many people didn't even get to have this. So, if anything he should consider himself lucky and he did, he really did. But, times like this, when he was alone in his room and pondering over things, his thoughts tended to wander.
He shook his head to get rid of these sad thoughts and started thinking about the ahead of him. It was not a very hectic one. The only big thing in his agenda that day was that, he had to drive his daughter to her new school as he had recently moved from New York to LA. Boy, Claire was not happy with that decision but after two years being surrounded with memories that had been made by a family of three, the family of two couldn't really fit into that house which was a home only because of Amelia. Almost everything is that house was associated with Amelia, and Cas & Claire both knew it. Even if Claire didn't want to admit it to herself or her father.
After dropping her at her school, he had a whole day where all he had to do was look over scripts sent by his agent, Balthazar. He had specifically asked for scripts that were a little different from his usual choices. He was looking forward to his comeback on a movie set as the last one he did was a year ago. He had worked after Amelia had died but those were only movies he had already made a commitment to beforehand. After finishing all those projects, he had taken a sabbatical from acting so that he and his daughter could grieve the loss of his beloved wife out of the public eye . And while it was a good idea, he had missed the hustle and bustle of a movie set. Acting was like therapy for him. He could let go of his emotions and don the mask of a completely different person and live through them, even if just for a few hours.
He was looking forward to what kind of scripts had Balthazar acquired. Truth be told, he had been a little terrified that he would be old news in Hollywood by now and no one would want to sign him. But , apparently, the public loved him enough for him to still be offered roles. He had seen all sorts of headlines in the past year regarding his disappearance , like " Has Ca Novak quit acting?" or " Why is Cas Novak hiding ?". It didn't bother him though. He was content with the knowledge that the paparazzi had no idea where he was and they weren't hounding him & his daughter. Thank God for small mercies.
The last film he had done was not a happy one ( He was dead halfway through the movie ). So, he was looking forward to doing something light-hearted with a happy ending. He looked at it as giving back to his loyal friends who had stayed by his side, to whom he owed his 15 years long successful career. Now only if he could find something that piqued his interest.
While all these thoughts were going through his mind, he had gotten out of his bed and just as he was about to take a step towards his washroom, he tripped and fell on the wooden floor, face first. He had tripped over one of the the boxes that he hadn't had the chance to unpack yet. He remembered going through them last night and finding his wedding album. He had spent about half an hour looking at his and his wife's happy faces after which any will to unpack and flown out the window and all he had wanted to do was escape depressive thoughts by going to bed. Falling asleep wasn't a problem because of the exhaustion he was facing due to the whole setting up the house thing.
Anyhow, after getting up from the floor, he kicked aside the box and was on his way to the washroom when he heard the boisterous laughter of his elder brother and the unmistakable sound of his daughter cursing. He hadn't even known Gabriel was coming and the fact that Claire was up without Cas having to drag her out of bed was a minor miracle in itself.
While moving to LA was a good choice as it gave them a change of scenery and bought him closer to all of his siblings, the downside of it was Claire and Gabriel meeting each other on a daily basis. And with Gabriel's brain and Claire's love of pranks. the team up of theses two was never a good idea. When Gabe came to NYC, they would wreck havoc together, and that was when they were with each other for a few days. Here, they could meet each other every day. Oh God, he should have taken this into account before moving to this city.
Nevertheless, Nothing could be done now other than being prepared for every kind of prank known to mankind. With those two, his life could never be boring. LA is going to be interesting. With these thoughts in his mind, Cas started to begin getting ready for the day.