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Castiel opened the door to the front office of Singer Automotive, a local car repair shop where he was the office manager, expecting the place to be empty. It was 6 a.m. and he was normally the first person to arrive each morning. What he didn't expect was to be greeted by a very chirpy redhead who had no business being so happy at this hour.
"Cas!!" Charlie greeted him as she hopped up from the chair she was sitting in.
Castiel jumped, flinging his keys across the room from the surprise of being startled. Charlie giggled and picked up the keys.
"Sorry about that," she said through a giggle.
"Charlie! What are you doing here this early? And how did you get in? The door was still locked," Castiel asked, amused. It was just like Charlie to be sitting in a locked room at 6 a.m.
"I was excited about the program I wrote last night. I wanted to show you! And the backdoor lock is easy to pick."
Castiel sighed. "I should probably just give you your own key... wait, what program?"
Charlie went back over to where she was sitting and picked up her laptop. She raised it to show the screen to Castiel. "This one. It's the program to pick the Secret Santa gift exchange recipients. I push this button and it randomly assigns each person someone to give a gift to. Then I just print the results and pass out each person's assignment."
"But doesn't that mean you know who is giving you yours?" Castiel asked with a smirk.
"Oh. I'm not getting one. This program is my gift to you all. Seeing you guys exchange gifts will be your gift to me." She smiled in a way that Castiel could have sworn was mischievous, but he wasn't great with recognizing emotions, so he was probably just misreading her excitement. Why would she look mischievous? It's just a gift exchange.
"Well, okay. If that's what you want."
"It is," she replied with a grin.
Castiel would have been fine with the traditional pull-a-name-from-a-bucket method of assigning secret Santa gift recipients, but Charlie had insisted on writing this program to do it. She said that it would be easy and that they needed to “get with the twenty-first century”. He had thought that the whole thing seemed like a bunch of unnecessary work for Charlie, but he also knew that once that girl got something in her head, it’s best not to be in her way.
"Will you be ready with the assignments when everyone gets in?" Castiel asked.
Charlie nodded. "Yep. It's all written. I just need to run it and print the results."
"Sounds like a plan." He nodded and continued to his desk to get ready for the day.
-------
A little while later, once everyone had arrived for the day, Charlie rounded everyone up when there was a break in customers.
"As everyone knows," she started announcing to the group, "I wrote a program this year to randomly assign the secret Santa gift assignments. Here in my hand are the results of running that script. I'm going to pass out these to each of you, but remember that this is a
secret
santa so you are not suppose to tell who you got."
Everyone around her nodded and she started calling out the names of her fellow employees. "Bobby, you’re first since you own the place."
Bobby stepped forward and took the little folded piece of paper. He looked at it and nodded before stepping back to where he was standing.
Charlie continued. "Dean, you've been like a brother to me. Here is yours." She grinned as she handed Dean his paper, who looked at the paper and grinned as well. Charlie's grin got even wider when she saw Dean's grin. Dean stepped back to his spot in the circle.
Charlie looked at Castiel. "Castiel, my bestie! Here’s yours." Castiel stepped forward and repeated the same motions that Dean had just gone through.
Charlie smiled. Ever since Castiel had started working here, she couldn't help but notice the looks that he and Dean gave each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. Maybe this year would be their year. Of course, it didn't hurt that she stepped in to help things along a bit.
She continued calling each person who was standing in the circle. Next was Sam, who was part-time, like herself, as he worked himself through school. Then Benny. Then Ash. Then Kevin, who was just their accountant, but whom they all treated like one of the family. Then finally Jo, to whom she handed the folded paper with a wink.
Charlie looked around at the people in front of her and was silently thankful for her friends who had let her into this little oddball family. She hoped that they liked their assignments.
----------
Castiel looked down at the little scrap of paper that Charlie had handed him earlier and read the name like he had fifty times before.
Dean.
He had gotten Dean. Just his luck.
Castiel had had a crush on the man who had become his best friend since the first day they had met.
That day, Castiel had been having a really bad day. He had woken up to rejection letters from three separate job applications. Then he had gotten in his car only to be presented with the low oil light. He was getting frustrated over the fact that he couldn't find a job in the small town that he had moved to in order to be closer to his sister. Why she liked it here, Castiel hadn’t a clue. Every job he applied for said that he was overqualified. He wondered, when did being well-qualified become a bad thing?
He had looked up places to get his oil changed and found a coupon for a place nearby. He hadn't looked too hard at the coupon and had ended up at Singer Automotive by mistake, which was right next to the place that he had the coupon for.
He got his oil changed and handed the coupon to Bobby who was taking his payment. Bobby had looked at him like he was crazy. "You are at the wrong place if you expected to use that." Castiel's face turned a bright shade of red.
After checking out, he got back into his car and drove off. But not two miles down the road, he noticed smoke coming out of the back of his car and a bright red "Low Oil Pressure. Stop Driving Now!" light started blinking. He immediately pulled over and got out of his smoking car.
He pulled his phone out and called the number on his receipt. The voice of the man who answered the phone didn’t sound like Bobby. "Hello?"
"Um, hi. I was just there and now I'm stranded on the side of the road because my car is smoking. So someone needs to come fix this," Castiel said trying to keep the anger out of his voice.
"Wow. Yeah. I'll be right there. Just hold on," the man said. Castiel told him his location and they hung up. Luckily, he had been stranded next to the town lake, so the wait wasn't too boring. He sat on the bank and watched the ducks swim around the water, watching him.
Next thing Castiel knew, a gorgeous black car pulled up behind his and an equally gorgeous man got out. "Hi. Are you Castiel?"
Castiel nodded. "I am. And that’s my car."
Dean looked at the Lincoln Continental that was no longer smoking. "Yeah. We've got a newbie working today. I think he put the wrong oil filter on’er. I'll take ya back to the shop first and then me and the guys’ll get her fixed right up."
Dean turned and looked out at the lake. "It sure is beautiful this time of year."
Castiel nodded. "It is. I love water. One day I'm going to take a trip to see the ocean."
"Yeah. I've traveled a lot, but that's one thing I still haven't done. Well, we better get going."
Castiel got in the car. "This is a really beautiful car."
The man smiled. "Thanks. This here is my baby. She's a ‘67 Impala. By the way, I'm Dean."
"Very nice to meet you," Castiel replied. He spent the rest of the drive sneaking peeks at Dean out of the corner of his eye.
Back at Singer Automotive, Castiel sat in the waiting area waiting for Dean to bring his car back to the shop and fix her. As he sat, he noticed the sign that read "Office Manager Wanted." That was probably another job that he was “overqualified” for.
Once Dean finished, he came in and got Castiel. "I'm sorry again that this happened. I'm a manager here and I'm gonna give you a coupon for a free oil change. I really hope you give us another chance."
Castiel smiled. If someone that hot wanted him to come back here, he was going to come back here. "Sure." Then he looked over at the “help wanted” sign again. "Oh. I was going to ask. Are you still looking for an office manager?"
The rest was history. Dean had given him the job on the spot and he had started the very next day. That was eight months ago. His crush on Dean grew steadily over the months to a point that he was surprised Dean hadn't noticed. Not only were they co-workers, but Dean had started inviting him to hang out with him and his friends (who were mostly their other co-workers anyway) and they had become close friends.
Now it was Christmas time and he had to come up with some sort of gift for Dean, but he had no idea what to get.
---------
Dean put the final bolt back in place and pushed himself out from under the Pontiac that he was working on, only to find Charlie standing over him.
"Charlie. Whacha doin' back here? Hell, whacha you still doing here at all? The name exchange was hours ago."
Charlie didn't work at Singer Automotive full time. She was just in charge of the computers and making sure the internet stayed working, which only took a few hours a week. Mostly, she just hung out there for the company.
"Nothing. Just hanging out. So, what are you thinking of for Cas?"
Dean sighed. Charlie had passed out the names so of course she knew who Dean had gotten. "I don't know yet. Any ideas?"
Dean was both happy and a bit terrified when he had opened the paper and saw Castiel's name. He had secretly had a crush on the man since that first day on the side of the road, but he had never told anyone that, and he doubted that he ever would. It was so much easier to just ignore those sort of feelings.
Now that he had Cas for the gift exchange, he had to find a gift that didn't scream ‘I have the hots for you,’ but that was still something Cas would like.
Charlie just smiled. "Oh, you aren't going to pawn this off on me, buddy. You have to find a gift that comes from the heart. Well, I better get back inside before Bobby yells at me for distracting you." She winked at Dean and turned around to leave him staring after her.
-------
A few days later, Castiel headed to the mall to see if he could find something for Dean. He walked up and down the mall waiting for something to jump out at him but nothing did. He felt stuck and finally decided to call Sam to see if he had any ideas.
"Hello?" Sam answered the phone.
"Hi, Sam. It's Castiel. Do you have a moment?"
"Sure. What's up?"
Castiel sighed and continued. "Well, I know I'm not suppose to divulge the name of my secret Santa gift recipient, but I'm stuck and I really need your help. Can you keep a secret?"
Sam laughed amusedly. "Sure. Who you got?"
"Dean."
"Ah. I see. But you two are such good friends. Hasn’t he mentioned anything about what he wants for Christmas?" Sam replied.
Castiel shook his head despite being on the phone where Sam couldn't see him. "No. I'm completely at a loss. I was hoping that he might have mentioned something to you.”
“Unfortunately, no,” Sam replied. “I'm getting him a beer mug for Christmas.”
Castiel chuckled. “He will like that.”
“I'm sure you will come up with something good.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
They said their goodbyes and hung up. That effort really wasn’t any help so he decided to give Charlie a try.
“Hey, Charlie.” Castiel said when Charlie answered the phone. “I'm at the mall and I have no idea what to get Dean for the gift exchange.”
“Cas, I'm not going to be much help. I want to make sure that you give a gift from the heart,” Charlie replied.
Castiel sighed. “I'd like to do that too, but I can't think of anything. Dean isn't too forthcoming with things he wants.”
“True. But is there anything that he said he wants to do or have?”
Suddenly an idea flashed in his mind. It might be outside the $100 spending limit but he didn't care.
“Charlie! That's brilliant! I know what I will get him,” Castiel said through his excitement.
Charlie laughed. “Really? Tell me!”
“No. I think I want this to be a surprise even for you.”
Charlie whined disappointedly. “Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad I could help.”
“Thanks!”
Charlie laughed. "It's not like I really did all that much."
--------
Later that evening, Sam and Dean were sitting around the dinner table, eating and chatting.
Dean sighed during a lull in the conversation. "So, I know that we ain't suppose to talk about the secret Santa exchange, but I'm stumped. I got Cas and I really have no idea what to get him."
Sam smiled at the realization that Dean and Cas had gotten each other in the exchange. Sam wondered if Charlie had anything to do with that. Charlie had always teased Cas and Dean about their friendship bond being stronger than others, and he wouldn't put it past her to rig the secret Santa. He did have to admit that Dean and Cas had a pretty profound bond. They acted from the very beginning as if they had known each other their whole lives.
"Do you have any ideas at all?" Sam asked.
Dean shook his head. "Cas is a weird guy, and I have no idea what he might want. What do you get a gadget-phobe who seems content with what he has?"
"Dean, he’s your best friend. I’m sure you can think of something. What do you talk about when you are hanging out together?"
"I dunno. Cars sometimes. Our lives. Regular everyday stuff. I don't know the last time I heard him say that he wanted anything. It could very well have been when..."
Dean stopped talking suddenly and looked at his brother. "That's it! He did tell me that he wanted something once. I'm going to give him that!"
Sam laughed. "You want to tell me what it is?"
Dean smirked. "Nope."
-------
The weekend before Christmas, the whole Singer Automotive team was gathered in Bobby's living room for the gift exchange. They had already eaten a traditional Christmas dinner and Charlie could barely contain her excitement through the whole meal.
Bobby laughed. "Charlie, you weren't kidding about looking forward to this even though you’re not getting a gift of your own."
"Yep. Seeing you guys open your gifts is the only present I need. In a way, I gave all of you a gift, and now you all are giving me one."
When Charlie had gathered everyone into the living room, she announced that she was going to play Santa and pass everyone's gift out one at a time.
Cas and Dean waited patiently for their gifts, but Charlie left them to the very end. After everyone else had opened their presents, she handed Dean and Cas their respective gifts at the same time.
"Since you two somehow got each other, I'll let you decide who goes first," she said with a smile.
Cas looked at Dean, who smiled and said, "You should go first. I think you'll like it."
Cas looked at the small box on his lap. "Okay. If you insist. And I really think you will like your gift as well."
Cas took the paper off the box and carefully opened the little package. Inside was a small refrigerator magnet of a wave approaching the shore and a piece of paper folded to fit in the box. Castiel unfolded the paper and read the handwritten note on top of a printout.
Cas, you always wanted to see the ocean so here’s your chance.
- Dean
Cas read the rest of the paper and realised that it was a gift certificate for a hotel on the coast of Oregon.
Castiel smiled, smiled again, and laughed. "Dean. Open yours."
Dean looked at him puzzled. "Don't ya like it?"
"You bet I do. Now open yours."
Dean smirked and ripped the paper off the little box he was holding. Inside the box was a gift card to Chevron and a note.
Since you once mentioned that you haven't seen the ocean, here is enough gas money to get you there. Merry Christmas!
Love, Castiel
Dean stared at the note for a long time then looked up at Castiel and laughed.
Charlie, who was getting impatient, asked demandingly, "Well? Is someone going to tell me what you got?"
Dean smiled and replied, "Cas and I are heading to the coast where we expect to find some ocean."
Charlie beamed. "Together?"
Castiel looked at Dean who nodded. "Yes. Together."
Charlie squealed and took the notes to see what they were talking about. "Oh! This is more perfect than I’d even imagined! You'll have such a great time!!"
And they did....
